Russia Wants To Fly People Into Space As Soon As Possible

Russia wants to fly people to space and even bring them on the Moon as soon as possible. The country has been investing in programs and projects to develop its space tourism and even possibly come up with an alternative to the U.S.-proposed lunar-orbit space station project.

Russia, China, the United States and Elon Musk are all vying to fly people to the Moon in the near future. China already landed its Chang'e-4 mission on the far side of the Moon and Elon Musk showed his new rocket engines to further SpaceX's lunar plans. The United States, specifically NASA, is taking a more collaborative approach, whereas Russia aims to start private space tourism in around five years.

Sergei Zhukov, co-leader of the working group of the National AeroNet Technology Initiative, said to RIA Novosti that the infrastructure necessary to support suborbital tourist traffic is now in development. The so-called CosmoCourse project intends to develop a reusable suborbital spacecraft that can tour space. The project has already secured a license from Roscosmos to launch space activities. Zhukov disclosed that it could take about five years for them to fly tourists outside the Earth. The journey could be around several minutes and as high as 100km.

Aside from developing its private space tourism, Russia’s foray into Moon exploration continues to be promising since it is considered as next best alternative to the U.S.-proposed lunar-orbit space station project. The United States recently presented its international lunar-orbit station project to which Russia was also invited as one of the participants and possible collaborators for the construction. This presents an excellent opportunity for Russia's bid to the Moon.

"Any movement toward the Moon is so expensive and complicated that it hardly can be done without international cooperation. So far in the world, with the exception of the U.S. proposal to create a lunar-orbit station, there are no well-developed programs that other countries could carry out. We intend to offer Russian vision that could be discussed with foreign partners," Space Research Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences director Anatoly Petrukovich told Sputnik in an interview.

Russia already has the market when it comes to space and lunar tourism. General Director Pavel Pushkin of private Russian company CosmoCourse said that people in the country are willing to pay as much as $200,000 to $250,000 to get on a space flight.