MOSCOW, July 13. /TASS/. Russia’s Soyuz MS spaceship will be operated for at least ten more years, CEO of Russia’s state space corporation Roscosmos said in an interview with the Komsomolskaya Pravda daily on Monday.

"I am absolutely sure that the Soyuz MS will be exploitable for at least ten years. That is why, during the first years we will use both the Soyuz MS and a new spacecraft," he said.

According to Roscosmos, the new Oryol spacecraft will perform regular flights to the International Space Station (ISS) from 2025.

OKB-1 (now known as Energia Rocket and Space Corporation) began development of the Soyuz spaceship in 1962. The first manned flight onboard the spacecraft was performed in 1967. The currently-used modification of the spacecraft can take up to three persons.

The Oryol manned spaceship is being built in Russia to be used in the lunar program. Its first unmanned flight is scheduled for 2023 from the Vostochnu spaceport.