MOSCOW, December 16. /TASS/. Roscosmos Chief Dmitry Rogozin instructed the Energia Space Rocket Corporation to work out a plan of building up the production of Soyuz MS manned spacecraft, the Roscosmos press office reported on Thursday.

"I instruct the Energia Space Rocket Corporation to submit a specific plan of action to the state corporation Roscosmos on boosting the production capacities to manufacture up to four manned spaceships a year," the Roscosmos chief said.

These measures are required to develop space tourism, the press office specified. For his part, the Roscosmos chief stressed that space tourism was yielding revenues that were channeled into the space industry modernization.

After US manned spaceships commenced their flights, Russia was relieved of its commitments to deliver foreign astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS), Rogozin said. "We have received an opportunity to send crews of three Russian cosmonauts to the station. The first such crew made up of professional cosmonauts will fly to the ISS in spring," the Roscosmos chief said.

The Roscosmos head earlier told reporters that currently one Soyuz spacecraft was being built to deliver space tourists to the orbital outpost in 2023. He also said that he had requested re-considering the production of spaceships in favor of manned spacecraft. Russia plans to produce two Soyuz spaceships for space tourists by 2024.

The Roscosmos chief said at a meeting with members of the Russian cosmonaut team that the space agency was not planning to cede its space tourism niche to the United States and was ready to fight for it.