MOSCOW. May 2 (Interfax-AVN) - The Russian Space Agency (Roscosmos) is going to create conditions requisite to launch manned space flights to the Moon and the Mars before 2030, its Director Anatoly Perminov said.
"We are going to provide conditions, including to build spaceships and new generation launch systems, so that we could erect stations on the Moon and start regular flights to the Mars before 2030," he said in an interview with the Senator Club program on the Rossiya TV Channel on Sunday.
He added that Roscosmos prepared and submitted to the government for consideration a future-oriented space industry development plan through 2040. "The draft was generally approved of, and is passing official formalities," he said.
According to him, Russia should continue space exploration both with automatic and manned systems.
He maintained that Russia is the only nation today to ensure space tourism services.
"Most likely, if such services are in demand, we will have to build new spaceships, different from Soyuz," he added.
He also said that the state parties to the International Space Station program, including Russia, the USA, Europe, Japan and Canada, agreed to raise the number of the station's crew from three to six starting in 2009. Before that the ISS should be equipped with the Japanese, European and Russian scientific modules. "As a result the station will be a lab for space research and experiments," he said.
He added that with the U.S. space shuttle program stopped in 2010, the major load of space transportation to the ISS would have to be borne by Russian space vehicles.