Russia Says Next-Gen Spacecraft Design Ready

The next generation of Russian spacecraft will be ready for test flights by 2017, according to Energia President Vitaly Lopota. 'We have completed the technical design project taking into account the fact that the new spaceship is to fly to the Moon, among other places,' he said. Federal Space Agency Roscosmos head Vladimir Popovkin says the new ship would be built by 2018 and would be able to conduct missions to the International Space Station and the Moon.

Comments

Re:Been there done that

[moderators_are_w*nke]

At least they're trying - NASA can't even make it to the ISS since the shuttle got decommisioned.

Re:Been there done that

[crazyjj]

This is not a program, it's a proposal. Every year they trot out a couple of proposals (remember klipr?) and see if they can get interest and funding.

If not (and so far "not" has always been the case) then they go back to the drawing board and make another proposal in 8 or 12 months.

Over and over

Pretty much everything you just said could be said about NASA too. How many times have they promised return trips to the moon and men on Mars over the decades?

Just watch. This will go nowhere, and next year there will be a different plan for a different vehicle.

Again, ditto for NASA's moon and Mars programs.