To the Moon and Back (& Mars): Russia to offer trips by 2018!

Russia is designing a new spaceship that will allow more space tourists to accompany cosmonauts on their missions.

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In an interview to RT, Vitaly Lopota, director of the Energiya space corporation, also said Russia has some serious plans for Mars and the Moon.

The following are his responses to a reporters questions (sampling-go to article source for complete interview).

The Energiya corporation has announced that it is going to build a space bus for six people. What kind of a spaceship is it going to be?

It is going to be slightly heavier due to the bigger volume, but also more spacious. The acceleration force will be slightly less, because the light property will be better, perhaps two-fold.

When can we expect it?

Sometime in the middle of this year. At this point the concept of the spacecraft is clear to us, and we are working to refine it. According to the plans of the Russian Federal Space Agency, the first unmanned test flight will be carried out in 2015. The first manned flight is scheduled for 2018.

Obama has decided to stop financing the United States’ Moon program. How is Russia doing in that respect?

This has been discussed in the past several years, in that we have plans that are different from the Americans. The Moon has never been a target for us. Sure, there is something to do on the Moon – but this cannot be the only goal of man. In terms of getting more knowledge we are more interested in planets like Mars, or Jupiter for instance. There we could study processes of space substance formation, which would widen our horizon

What about Mars? Now I have to say go to the article and read. I can't wait to read any comments. Enjoy.

Source: rt.com...
And, if you don't want to read, there is an 8 minute video of the interview etc.

Russia is on the move-to Space. And they are ahead of the game. More to come.

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