“It’s a kind of inter-orbital tow spacecraft for launching new heavy satellites and spacecraft to far-destined orbits, as well as to the Moon and other planets in the Solar system. At present we have rockets with chemical fuel that can launch a vehicle weighing 5-6 tonnes. While these new vehicles will weigh two, or even four times more,” explained Igor Afanasyev from Cosmonautics News Magazine.

The Kremlin has set aside some 17 billion rubles to help develop a nuclear-powered rocket engine. 500 million rubles of that money are set aside for 2010.

Russia's space company Energia, which helps to develop the engine, estimates the new spacecraft could be tested by 2015.

Currently rockets use solid or liquid fuel boosters, which are very energy-inefficient. With the new system, once the payload gets into space using conventional fuel, they can then stop using that  booster and switch over to the new nuclear-powered drive that has the potential to bring payloads to much greater distances.

That is something that can help get payloads to the ISS, and this is even more important, as the US space shuttle program is going to end in 2010 and not resumed until 2015.

It also has implications for getting mankind even further to the Moon, possibly to Mars, and even exploration further in the cosmos.

This new technology also has potential applications for military defense. For instance it could be used to monitor troop movements in the field.

But what rocket and space corporation Energia is trying to really stress is the new system’s civil defensive potential.

“Some media outlets have misinterpreted our words on the application of the system – saying it might be used to propel a military spacecraft with offensive capabilities into space. In reality the system will help provide communications in regions hit by natural disasters and military conflicts. It will also be used to avert an asteroid threat and to monitor our territories,” Energia’s statement says.