Russia is planning to send a cosmonaut to the moon by 2029 according to the head of its spacecraft contractor.
Vladimir Solntsev, the head of Russian aerospace company Energia, told state news agency RIA Novosti on Tuesday that Russian scientists were in the process of building a new spacecraft made of composite materials and designed specifically for lunar missions.
It is currently scheduled to be completed by 2021 when it will conduct its maiden voyage, although it will not attempt to make a moon mission until 2025, when it is scheduled to carry out an unmanned flight. Before it attempts this feat, the new spacecraft will dock at the international space station in 2023. A manned flight and landing on the moon will then be attempted in 2029, according to Solntsev who was speaking at a space exploration technology exposition in Moscow.
Russian national daily Izvestia have previously reported that Russia's national space agency, Roscosmos had postponed plans for a manned flight to the moon that was due to take place in 2030 because of financial issues. In August, sources from the Federal Cosmic Program told the publication that the first manned Russian flight to the moon would not take place before 2033, with tests starting in 2029.
In June, Russia's investigative committee spokesman questioned whether the U.S. had gone to the moon at all, urging U.S. investigators to focus the case surrounding the missing footage from the 1969 landing.
Moscow has previously sent unmanned robot rovers to the moon, landing its first one—Lunokhod 1—in November, 1970. NASA said the vehicle was the "first successful robotic lunar rover."
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