It doesn't look like very much of it will be reusable, but overall it looks like they've found a reasonable balance between R&D costs verses mission costs. It tends to cost a lot more money to do R&D for a reusable system, and refurbishment costs before the next flight can be high, too. Other than the lifting body design for the reentry vehicle, it doesn't appear very different from my "Big Soyuz" idea from last year.
I wonder how hard it would be to man-rate the Zenit. Since 4 Zenits were used as strap-ons for the Energyia booster and that was intended to be man-rated, perhaps it wouldn't be too difficult. That might be a more cost effective solution than a growth version of the Soyuz booster. Still, you can't help but love the reliability and cost effectiveness of the Soyuz.
Space/Science » in reply to More on the Russian Kliper
Interesting design
