Russia to build lunar Soyuz at his own expense, the source said
MOSCOW, January 20 — RIA Novosti. Russia will develop modifications of the spacecraft Soyuz for missions to the moon for its own account, any payment from NASA is not expected, reported RIA Novosti senior source in the space industry.
Earlier the General Director of “Rosatom” Dmitry Rogozin, the TV channel “Russia 24” said that NASA asked Roskosmos to create a version of the Soyuz spacecraft as a backup to the manned space transportation system for missions to the moon.
“NASA will not pay, all the work was to establish at their own expense”, — said the Agency interlocutor.
At the request of RIA Novosti, whether NASA has turned to Russia with a proposal to create a duplicate of a manned space system, the American space Agency did not answer. “Roskosmos” also failed to respond promptly to the request of RIA Novosti about who will pay for the work.
To enable flight of the Soyuz spacecraft to the moon, you need to create the upper stage that will send a spacecraft to the moon, a new thermal protection, which will allow the ship while returning from the moon down into the earth’s atmosphere at the second cosmic velocity (11.2 kilometres per second).