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- BAIKONUR, Kazakhstan -- Russia said on Wednesday it had successfully tested a new, reusable space launch vehicle with engines that can be switched on and off in orbit -- but it was still missing after returning to earth.
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- By nightfall the craft had yet to be found after returning from its one-day maiden voyage.
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- "We consider the operation successful. We will continue searching for the device in the morning," a Russian Space Agency spokesman said.
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- The "Fregat" accelerator block, made by Russia's Lavochkina Science Production Association, had blasted off earlier in the day from Kazakhstan's Baikonur cosmodrome.
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- Helicopters and planes scoured Russia's Orenburg region in the southern Ural mountains for the craft, but the search was hindered by poor weather.
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- In Baikonur, the Fregat was hailed as a revolution in space flight.
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- "This block is the new word in rocket technology," Lavochkina's deputy general constructor Valeryan Baikin said after the launch.
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- "It has an effective, compact design, a triple-axis steering system, and the ability to switch on the engines several times during a flight," Baikin told reporters. "Furthermore, it can return to earth and be used again."
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- The test mission involved circling the earth five times in about eight hours before returning to earth.
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- If the mission and a second test planned for March are successful, the Fregat is due to make two launches this summer with equipment for the European Space Agency.
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- The Fregat is capable of carrying space equipment weighing up to 4.2 tons to an altitude of 875 miles and lighter loads far higher.
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- It has a special cone-shaped braking system, which allows the craft to return to earth after it has completed its mission in space as well as serving to soften the impact on landing.
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- It also boasts its own parachute system, meaning that if a launch goes wrong the Fregat block and its load could return to earth largely undamaged.
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- Two Russian Proton rocket boosters failed last year shortly after taking off from Baikonur, raining debris over the remote Kazakh steppe and triggering temporary suspensions of Proton launches.
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- Vladimir Yefanov, the deputy head of the Fregat project at Lavochkina, said the craft could be used with all the main rocket boosters used for Russia's space program.
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- "The Fregat is a universal model. It can be used with the Proton, Zenit, Soyuz and Dnepr boosters," he said.
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- Wednesday's launch was on a Soyuz booster.
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