LKS (spacecraft)

The LKS, also called the Chelomei Space Interceptor, was a Soviet design for a reusable manned winged spacecraft, similar to the later European Hermes spaceplane. It consisted of a reusable winged vehicle with a shuttle-like double-delta configuration and twin canted horizontal stabilizers, placed forward of an expendable payload section, and would have been launched atop a Chelomei Proton booster. Equipment or samples to be returned to Earth would have been moved to its own payload bay with a remote manipulator arm before re-entry. The design was about 19 metres long with an 11 metre span and a gross mass of 25,000 kg. Design began in 1975 and a draft project was completed in 1980, but it reached only the mock-up stage and further development was stopped in 1983. Unidentified saboteurs broke into the NPO Mashinostroyeniya premises in March 1991 and destroyed the mock-up.