Expert: tests of a rocket that will fly to the moon have been going on since 1992.
Manned flights to the Moon are planned to be carried out on the Angara rocket. Roskosmos has announced a tender to study the problematic issues of organizing manned flights to the Moon. At the same time, as the scientific director of the Moscow Space Club Ivan Moiseyev said on the air of Radio Komsomolskaya Pravda (radiokp.ru), the rocket itself is not yet in operation – its tests are continuing.
“Angara” has been built since 1992, it has not yet been commissioned, but test flights – tests have already begun. In order to fly to the moon, it is necessary to consider not the “Angara” that is now, but the one that should be made, which has not been very much embarked on – this is “Angara 5B” with a hydrogen upper stage, “he said.
The contract value is over 1 billion 700 million rubles. The main task of the contractor is to ensure “the safe stay and work of cosmonauts in circumlunar orbit and on the lunar surface in terms of work in 2022 – 2025,” the document says.
“We had hydrogen engines, then the technologies were forgotten and we have to start all over again. And when such a rocket is created, then theoretically, if there is a lot of money, it is possible to move on to theoretical planning of a man's flight to the Moon, ”concluded Moiseev.
