MOSCOW, July 25. /TASS/. Svetlana Savitskaya, a Soviet cosmonaut who flew to space twice and the first woman to perform a spacewalk, told TASS she doesn’t think lunar settlements will be needed to explore the Earth’s natural satellite.

"I am not sure settlements on the Moon are necessary <…> I don’t see such a necessity. There is no need in that from the point of view of defense," said Savitskaya, who is now deputy chair of the Russian State Duma (lower parliament house) Defense Committee.

She said that lunar exploration does not necessarily require the construction of lunar settlements. A flight to the Moon would be useful if it "helps acquire more experience in flight control techniques," the cosmonaut noted.

She added that humankind should continue exploration of other planets of the solar system, and when human set foot on Mars or Venus it would be a colossal breakthrough.

Director General of Russia’s state space corporation Roscosmos Dmitry Rogozin earlier reported in a presentation at the Moscow State University that Russian cosmonauts would step on the Moon in 2030 and the construction of lunar base module would be kicked off after that.

Meanwhile last November, Chief Designer and First Deputy Director General of Energia Rocket and Space Corporation Yevgeny Mikrin told a conference dedicated to the 20th anniversary of the International Space Station (ISS) that a 14-day Russian lunar mission was planned after 2030.