[3][13] Previously, ESA officials had inquired whether they could be part of the Constellation Program of the United States, with NASA focused on its Orion spacecraft, but they had received a negative response.

CSTS had completed an initial study phase, which lasted for 18 months from September 2006 to spring 2008, before the project was shut down before an ESA member state conference in November 2008.

[clarification needed][16] By the first quarter of 2009, Roscosmos had finalized its requirements for the next-generation crewed spacecraft and had received proposals from both RKK Energia and Khrunichev enterprise.

Formally, only two organizations which were practically capable of developing crewed space vehicles competed in the government tender to build the new spacecraft—RKK Energia in Korolev and Moscow-based Khrunichev enterprise.

On 21 January 2009, the head of Roscosmos, Anatoly Perminov, told Rossiyskaya Gazeta, a Russian newspaper, that Russia would likely proceed with independent development of the next-generation crewed spacecraft.

According to Perminov, the agency and its main research and certification center—TsNIIMash—had already conducted an expanded meeting of the Scientific and Technical Council, NTS, examining follow-on transport systems, including the next-generation crewed ship.

[citation needed] The agency's general requirements asked the industry to develop a vehicle of "foreign" standards in its technical capabilities and cost, while at the same time using existing technologies as much as possible.

Emergency escape and landing capabilities were mandated for every phase of the mission and were to provide for the survivability of the crew until the arrival of the rescue and recovery teams.

Roscosmos reserved the option of making the crew module of the spacecraft reusable, reckoning that a cone-shaped capsule could possibly fly up to 10 missions during a 15-year lifespan.

Although the agency delayed the announcement of the winner, many unofficial sources in Russia maintained that TsSKB Progress, based in Samara and KB Mashinostroenia, would lead the development of the new rocket.

[20] It was believed that the launch vehicle, named Rus-M, would feature a common core stage and a variable number of boosters, each equipped with powerful RD-180 engines, burning a mix of liquid oxygen and kerosene.