First Russian to land on Moon in 2031 - Energiya space corporation

MOSCOW, November 15. /TASS/. Russia’s rocket and space corporation Energiya plans to land the first Russian on the Moon in 2031, Energiya CEO Vladimir Solntsev said on Tuesday. "After 2025, the start of flights to the Moon and the start of the work to become accustomed to this artificial satellite are planned. The year 2026 will see an unmanned flight around the Moon and in 2027 we’ll launch a take-off and landing module to the Moon’s orbit," he said. The module will land on the Moon in an automatic mode, he added. "In 2029, there will be an unmanned flight of a new spacecraft to the Moon’s orbit. In the 2030s, we set the task of a manned flight to the Moon and in 2031 we plan landing on the Moon," he said. As the Central Research Institute of Machine-Building (TsNIImash) told TASS earlier, Russia’s future Moon exploration program envisages flights around the Moon and the landing of cosmonauts on its surface, as well as their delivery to the Lagrange point of the Earth-Moon system (the equilibrium point of the two celestial bodies’ gravitational forces). Russia is developing a manned spacecraft Federatsiya (Federation) for flights to the Moon. Its flight prototype is planned to be made in 2020 and launched in an unmanned mode in 2021. The first manned launch is planned for the end of 2023. According to TsNIImash data, Russia plans to make one or two Federatsiya spacecraft launches to the Moon a year from 2025. Russia’s Energiya Rocket and Space Corporation is also offering a project called "Leap" - a manned spacecraft for flights to the Moon, which will be based at the International Space Station and shuttle from it to the international near-Moon platform, delivering cargoes and cosmonauts who will make flights to the ISS aboard Soyuz rockets. Read more