Space Taxi: Russian Space Rocket Corporation Energia to Transport Crew from ISS to the Moon

At the moment, space companies are working on how to transport a space crew from one celestial body to another.

Russian space rocket corporation, Energia, just announced that it is developing a spacecraft that could be capable of sending men to the moon from the International Space Station (ISS).

Energia's spacecraft is called Ryvok' or 'Charge' and the company claims it could cut the cost of transporting astronauts in space.

Roscosmos recently held the Human Space Exploration conference in Korolev near Moscow where the "Ryvok" was unveiled. Energia said that the spacecraft will be docked on the ISS permanently. It will shuttle crew and cargo to the moon and back just like a space Uber or space taxi. Once finished, this project claims to drastically cut the cost of space transport.

"The cost of the Ryvok reusable manned spacecraft mission is a third lower than the costs of the Federation manned transport spacecraft mission," said Energia's representative Yuri Makushenko in a statement during the conference, as reported by RT.

With a cheaper option, lunar missions have more chances of taking place and they can happen more often. The unveiling of the Russian reusable space shuttle coincides with the European Space Agency's (ESA) lunar missions and their proposed "moon village". With the help of this moon transport service, ESA's lunar mission might take place and they just found themselves a cheaper space service as well.

With cheaper costs and seemingly easier transport process, some reports call the Russian project as the new "space taxi."

Ryvok, the reusable space taxi, will use modernized standard accelerator block to operate and will have the capability to reach the moon from the ISS in only five days. For docking and landing, a 55 square meter "umbrella" will be used to help reduce the speed of the spacecraft.

Although Ryvok is not the only pending reusable space shuttle on the works, Energia claims that the price of their spacecraft is definitely cheaper than the other alternatives.