The Lunar Orbital Station (; LOS) is a proposed

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

space station A space station (or orbital station) is a spacecraft which remains orbital spaceflight, in orbit and human spaceflight, hosts humans for extended periods of time. It therefore is an artificial satellite featuring space habitat (facility), habitat ...

which would orbit around the

Moon The Moon is Earth's only natural satellite. It Orbit of the Moon, orbits around Earth at Lunar distance, an average distance of (; about 30 times Earth diameter, Earth's diameter). The Moon rotation, rotates, with a rotation period (lunar ...

. The design was presented in 2007 at a conference at the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center in Star City. It is one of the two parts of the planned Russian lunar infrastructure, the other part being a base on the surface of the Moon. LOS would have six docking ports, a high-power antenna for

communications Communication is commonly defined as the transmission of information. Its precise definition is disputed and there are disagreements about whether Intention, unintentional or failed transmissions are included and whether communication not onl ...

, maneuvering and

attitude control Spacecraft attitude control is the process of controlling the orientation of a spacecraft (vehicle or satellite) with respect to an inertial frame of reference or another entity such as the celestial sphere, certain fields, and nearby objects, ...

engines,

solar panels A solar panel is a device that converts sunlight into electricity by using photovoltaic (PV) cells. PV cells are made of materials that produce excited electrons when exposed to light. These electrons flow through a circuit and produce direct ...

and a

robotic arm A robotic arm is a type of mechanical arm, usually programmable, with similar functions to a human arm; the arm may be the sum total of the mechanism or may be part of a more complex robot. The links of such a manipulator are connected by join ...

. The station components would be launched atop a super heavy version of the Angara rocket. Russia has expressed discontent with its role in the international

Lunar Gateway The Lunar Gateway, or simply Gateway, is a planned space station which is to be assembled in orbit around the Moon. The Gateway is intended to serve as a communication hub, science laboratory, and habitation module for astronauts as part ...

, which prompted the country to go ahead with the planning of its own lunar station. In October 2020,

Dmitry Rogozin Dmitry Olegovich Rogozin (; born 21 December 1963) is a Russian nationalist politician serving as the senator from the Russian-occupied Zaporozhye Oblast since 23 September 2023. He previously served as General Director of Roscosmos from 2018 ...

, director general of Roscosmos, said that the Lunar Gateway program is too “U.S.-centric” for Roscosmos to participate in. In January 2021, Roscosmos announced that it will not participate in the program.

References

External links

Lunar Orbital Station, LOS
Proposed space stations Exploration of the Moon Space program of Russia 2030s in science {{Moon-stub