Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation Dmitry Rogozin denied information that had appeared in the media earlier about a significant reduction in the lunar program of Roscosmos. He also announced the start of work on a new super-heavy rocket.
In an interview with the Vesti TV channel, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin called the information on the reduction of the lunar program "speculation". We will remind, earlier a number of media outlets reported about changes in the Federal Space Program (FKP). According to journalists, the projects “Creation of a lunar take-off and landing complex”, “Creation of a lunar orbital station”, “Creation of a lunar base”, “Creation of a lunar spacesuit” and “Creation of a robotic support system on the Moon” were removed from it.
“I read that it seems like Roskosmos has abandoned lunar plans, plans to create a lunar station … I want to say that this is not true, and rumors about the death of the lunar program are somewhat exaggerated,” Dmitry Rogozin told TV journalists, without specifying, however, how much it is precisely the great exaggeration. Rogozin announced plans to colonize the Moon back in April last year. According to forecasts, the landing of astronauts on the lunar surface was planned in 2028–2030. By 2050, the creation of the first settlement was projected.
Also, the Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation noted in an interview that Russia has begun work on the creation of a super-heavy rocket, the first stage of which will be the Phoenix rocket. The purpose of the super-heavy rocket will be deep space exploration. “This is no longer 37 tons, like Angara, not 25 tons, like Proton, but for 100 tons and maybe 150 tons. To create large large expeditions, we need a "dump truck", and such a "dump truck" we will have a super-heavy rocket, but we are approaching it in about the same way as the Soviet Union approached this project in its time ", - Dmitry Rogozin specified.