Russia to launch manned moon missions by 2029

Moscow: Russia is planning to send its first manned lunar missions by 2029, Vladimir Solntsev, head of Roscomsos Energia consortium, announced on Tuesday.

"A manned flight to the moon and lunar landing is planned for 2029," Solntsev said.

A spacecraft specially designed to carry out missions to the moon is currently being built by Roscomsos Energia, and is expected to make its first test flight in 2021, EFE news reported.

It will dock with the International Space Station in 2023.

In 2025, the spaceship will carry out its first unmanned mission to the moon.

The US remains the only country to send manned lunar missions; the first was in 1969.

The Russian Federal Space Agency, commonly known as Roscosmos, decided to change its focus on the conquest of Mars after the resounding failure of the Phobos Grunt mission in 2011, which intended to take samples from one of the moons of the red planet.