Russia planning manned spaceflight to moon: Putin

Russia is actively implementing a lunar program through 2030, aiming to send astronauts to the moon, President Vladimir Putin said Thursday, Russia's Cosmonautics Day.

Russia's President Vladimir Putin (L front) visits the renovated Cosmos pavilion of the VDNKh exhibition centre. [Photo: IC]

Putin said "yes" to the question "We are going to fly to the moon, right?" when he visited the Space Pavilion at the all-Russian Center of Achievements of the National Economy, according to the Kremlin.

Russia will first build a space station on the lunar orbit and then modules on the moon itself, he told cosmonauts and space industry veterans, saying he has no doubt that Russia will be able to do this.

The program will run until 2030 and the Federatsiya spacecraft is now nearing completion, while work has begun on creating a super-heavy rocket for the moon projects, Putin said.

According to him, Russia plans to test the super-heavy carrier rocket in 10 years and a special launch compound for the rocket's trials will be built at the Vostochny spaceport in the Russian Far East.

The Cosmonautics Day commemorates the first manned spaceflight on April 12, 1961 by Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin.