Man on Moon & Mars landing: Russia space plans unveiled

Russian probes will visit Mars, Jupiter and Venus, while Russian cosmonauts will set foot on the surface of the Moon – all by 2030. At least according to the plans of the country’s space agency.

Space Development Strategies up to 2030, the official blueprint that for the country’s space industry in the coming years, was submitted to the government by the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos) last week, Kommersant reports.

And it makes for a breathtaking – some might say fantastical – read.

By 2020, the long-gestating and as yet untested Angara rocket will become the chief means of launching Russian loads, replacing the trusted Soyuz and Proton, which have been in use since the mid-1960s. The new rocket will be headed by a new piloted spaceship carrying six astronauts, instead of the current three. No concrete project for such a spaceship currently exists.

The launches will be made from the brand-new Vostochny cosmodrome in the east of Russia, decreasing dependence on the outdated Baikonur facility, which is located outside of country’s borders in Kazakhstan and has to be rented. Construction on the $20 billion facility began last year, and is scheduled to wrap up in 2018.

Yuri Gagarin, First Man In Space, Featured In YouTube Movie ‘First Orbit’

YouTube is celebrating 50 years of human spaceflight with the premiere of an hour-and-a-half long video, First Orbit, that recreates, in real-time, Russian astronaut Yuri Gagarin’s first 108-minute long orbit of Earth in 1961.

First Orbit’s creators worked with the International Space Station to obtain footage that presents “a new view of what Yuri would have seen as he travelled around the planet.”

“Weaving these new views together with historic voice recordings from Yuri’s flight and an original score by composer Philip Sheppard, we have created a spellbinding film to share with people around the World on this historic anniversary,” The Attic Room explains on its website.

The video begins with Gagarin’s launch and the astronaut’s reflections as he is about to take off–“All I have done and lived for has been lived for for this moment”–then takes viewers on a breathtaking tour through orbit.

Russia Plans Space Program Expansion And Moon Base By 2030: Reports

Russia is planning a massive increase in its space launches and may even build a base on the moon as part of a manned mission to Mars in the next two decades, according to reports.

Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said Thursday that his country’s plans go well beyond transporting crews to the International Space Station. With a 2010-2011 space budget estimated at 200 billion rubles ($7.09 billion), Russia is the world’s fourth-largest spender on space after U.S. space agency NASA, the European Space Agency and France, Reutersreports.

“Russia should not limit itself to the role of an international space ferryman. We need to increase our presence on the global space market,” Putin is quoted as having said at his residence outside Moscow. The meeting was planned specifically to coincide with the 50th anniversary of Yuri Gagarin’s pioneering space flight.