MOSCOW. Sept 26 (Interfax-AVN) - The Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos) does not the Chinese space program as a competitor to its program.
"We view China as a partner in exploring space rather than a competitor," Roscosmos spokesman Alexander Vorobyov said, commenting on the successful launch of China's third manned spacecraft Shenzhou-7 with three astronauts aboard.
Vorobyov congratulated China on the successful launch and pointed out that Russian and Chinese space agencies cooperate on a large range of issues, including the first spacewalk of Chinese astronauts. One of the space suits for Chinese astronauts was produced in Russia, he said.
Russia and China will organize joint projects on the exploration of Mars and the Moon by means of automatic spacecraft in the years to come, he said.
An independent Chinese spacecraft for the Mars exploration will be a part of the Phobos-Grunt project, which would bring samples of the Mars soil back to Earth.
Russian experts directly participate in China's Moon exploration program: to photograph the moon, land on it, and to take samples of lunar rock and return them to Earth.