Larger spending on space explorations will enable Russia to send three missions to the Moon and actively engage in the second lunar race, President of the Russian Academy of Sciences Alexander Sergeyev said at a session of the Academy’s Presidium on Tuesday, Tass informs.
Russia to send three missions to Moon by 2026
STEPANAKERT, APRIL 13, ARTSAKHPRESS: On Cosmonautics Day on April 12, Russian President Vladimir Putin held a meeting with heads of the space industry and government members on the space research program. According to Sergeyev, it was confirmed at the highest level during the meeting that the government would restore financing of scientific space exploration under the federal space program, which would amount to 15 billion rubles ($195 million) a year.
"This is a very important moment related to our concerns that our proposals are postponed ever further. But now a decision has been made to restore financing at the level of 15 billion rubles, which will enable us to implement three missions to the Moon: Luna-25 this year, Luna-26 in 2024 and Luna-27 in 2025," Sergeyev said.
The Moon has now become a place for the space race (lunar race 2), the academician pointed out. He recalled that the first lunar race dated back to the period of 1966 - 1976 when about 20 soft landings on the Moon’s surface had been made.
