Rogozin instructed to create a production plan for up to four manned spacecraft “Soyuz MS” per year
Photo: Maxim Blinov / RIA Novosti
Roscosmos General Director Dmitry Rogozin instructed the Rocket and Space Corporation (RSC) Energia to create a plan to increase the production of Soyuz MS spacecraft, which are supposed to be used for tourists wishing to fly to the International Space Station (ISS), the state corporation reports.
According to him, after the start of the operation of the American spacecraft Crew Dragon, “obligations to deliver foreign astronauts to the ISS were lifted from Russia,” which provided the state corporation with “the opportunity to send crews of three Russian cosmonauts to the station.”
“Recently, we have resumed the practice of space tourism. There are now two Japanese citizens in orbit. This service brings us real money, which is spent on modernizing the rocket and space industry, “said the general director, instructing Energia to create” a specific action plan to increase production capacity in order to manufacture up to four manned spacecraft per year. “
In December, the Soyuz MS-20 spacecraft carrying Russian cosmonaut Alexander Misurkin and Japanese tourists Yusaku Maezawa and Yozo Hirano reached the ISS.
