MOSCOW, February 22. /TASS/.Russia’s promising Federatsiya spacecraft that will be renamed will be used for flights to the Moon and deep space flights, Head of State Space Corporation Roscosmos Dmitry Rogozin told journalists on Friday.

"While the flight tests of the new manned transport spacecraft, which we earlier called Federatsiya, will begin in 2022, we proceed from the fact that this will be a heavy reusable spacecraft with the enhanced thermal and radiation protection," the Roscosmos chief said.

"That is, it is intended for flights to the Moon and for deep space rather than for flights to the ISS [International Space Station]. This is because it will be very costly to use it on the ISS while Soyuz MS spacecraft and its further modifications will remain for the ISS," Rogozin said.

Federatsiya spacecraft

The Federatsiya spacecraft is being developed by the Energia Space Rocket Corporation. The spacecraft is designed to deliver humans and cargoes both into near-Earth orbit and into deep space. The spacecraft will have a crew of up to 4 cosmonauts. It will be capable of operating in the mode of an autonomous flight for up to 30 days and for a term of a year as part of an orbital station.