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Roscosmos to present federal space programme for 2016-2025 by yearend

Roscosmos in partnership with the European Space Agency will be carrying out two stages of the ExoMars mission in 2016 and 2018

MOSCOW, October 4. /TASS/. The Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos) will present a federal space programme for 2016-2025 before the end of the year, the agency’s head, Oleg Ostapenko, said on Saturday.

“Roscosmos has finished drafting the programme and is now coordinating it with interested ministries and agencies. We must present it to the government before the end of the year,” Ostapenko said.

Speaking of the programme’s budget, he said it was still in the works and “it would be premature to name any figures now”.

He said, however, that the share of manned missions will not decrease. “Manned space missions will always play a key role in the industry. Any doubt otherwise would be incorrect,” he said.

Space research will also get a great deal of attention, with a focus on Moon and Mars exploration.

Roscosmos in partnership with the European Space Agency will be carrying out two stages of the ExoMars mission in 2016 and 2018.

In 2016, Roscosmos is planning to join Europe and Japan in the BepiColombo project.

In 2017, it will orbit the Spektr-RG telescope and send a Russian rover, Luna-Globe, to the Moon in 2019, for the first time in years.

An UV observatory is to be launched in 2020; an orbiting module and a dropship are scheduled to be sent to the Moon in 2012 and 2023, respectively.

After thoroughly testing lunar and Martian technologies, approximately in 2024, Russia, may repeat its Phobos-Grunt mission to Mars’ satellite Phobos to collect its soil and bring it back to Earth.