MOSCOW, November 21. /TASS/. Russia and the United States confirmed their intention to organize a joint mission to Venus, General Director of Roscosmos Dmitry Rogozin said in an interview to YouTube channel Soloviov Live.

"We agreed with the Americans on a joint mission to Venus. Venus was traditionally considered the Russian planet. It was the Soviet spacecraft that landed there," he said , adding "But we are going to put a mission there, it is called Venera-D - a joint Russian-American mission."

He explained that this joint work will help to simplify this task from the point of view of economics, technology, and science. "It is easier to solve such issues together, using the talents of our scientists, and at the same time it will be economically simpler, and more reliable in terms of the operation of technology, and so on. Therefore, the US is also interested in this," Rogozin said.

Venus program

In mid-May 2020, Scientific Director of the Russian Space Research Institute Lev Zeleny said that Russian scientists may prepare several own missions for the exploration of Venus.

"Earlier we talked about only one mission, ‘Venera-D’, now Roscosmos recommends that we move ahead. Taking into account the importance of Venus for science, we may have several missions to Venus. We are discussing it now, there may be two or even three of them," he said.

In the middle of May, the scientist told TASS that Russia would develop a new Venus exploration program, which would include sending at least three research vehicles to the planet. According to him, the first expedition within the program will be the ‘Venera-D’ planned for the late 2020s.