Russia approves a 10-year long space program

Russia approves a 10-year long space program

The Russian government has approved what is a 10-year long space program for the country. It has made available the funds to be used by their space agency for the development of a reusable spacecraft to replace the ageing Soyuz manned launch vehicle. Soyuz has been the savior for both Russia and USA as it provided the much needed support materials to the International Space Station with Space Shuttle grounded since the last two years.

The country also is planning to consider the possibilities of humans to make the flight to Mars. They have decided to undertake a study where six volunteers will spend 500 days in a mock space module in Moscow. They have already received applications from the potential volunteers for the project. The budget allotted for this 10-year program is around 300 billion roubles ($10.50 billion). This is surprisingly less than what the US spends on their space program in 1 year!

The space shuttle program was due to resume this week but has now been indefinitely postponed after NASA found problems in one of the four fuel sensors on board. Both the countries are actively involved in the development of the International Space Station, which enables them to station the astronauts in space for longer durations to make their scientific studies and operations in space.