MOSCOW, April 12. /TASS/. A draft of Russia’s Moon program is currently being considered by federal executive bodies of power, Roscosmos CEO Yury Borisov told TASS in an interview.
"For taking a cosmonaut to the surface of the Moon it is necessary to have a program for building a super-heavy class space rocket complex. Currently, a draft of such a program, as well as the development and approval of the Moon program, are being coordinated with the federal executive authorities," Borisov said.
According to the Roscosmos CEO, the key guidelines for the domestic crewed flights program are research into Russia’s future orbital outpost and preparations for a mission to the Moon.
"Roscosmos is developing a preliminary design of a new Russian orbital station, including its shape and target orbit," he said, adding that a large group of thinktanks - from specialized universities to the Russian Academy of Sciences - was involved in discussions on what the ROS should be like.
In April 2021, Yury Borisov, who was then Russia’s deputy prime minister, said that the condition of the ISS left much to be desired, so Russia might focus on creating its own orbital station. Currently, research into its conceptual design is underway. In October 2022, Deputy Prime Minister, Industry and Trade Minister Denis Manturov told the media that the preliminary costs of building Russia’s orbital outpost of the future were already known.
The deputy chief designer of the space rocket corporation Energia (a subsidiary of Roscosmos) Vladimir Kozhevnikov, appointed the future orbital station’s chief designer, told TASS in February that the launch of the first research and energy supply module was scheduled for late 2027 and that of the node, airlock, base and target modules, for 2028-2030.