The first flight of a Russian cosmonaut to the Moon will most likely be carried out using the American Orion spacecraft. This will happen approximately in 2024. As part of this mission, he will participate in the installation of a Russian airlock at the international lunar station Lunar Orbital Platform - Gateway. This was reported by the RIA Novosti agency, citing an anonymous source in the rocket and space industry.
In April, an international group met in Houston to discuss the specifics of the new space station near the Moon, as well as further prospects for its use.
“As part of the negotiations, sketches of future manned missions to the lunar station were made. Among other things, the possibility of a flight of one Russian cosmonaut as part of the Orion spacecraft crew, which will tow the Russian airlock to the Moon, is being discussed,”the agency's source said.
The source also added that at the moment they are planning four manned missions to the lunar station. At the same time, the Russian cosmonaut will definitely go as part of the first manned mission to the moon, accompany the airlock module and carry out its installation.
“In addition, negotiations are underway to include another Russian cosmonaut in another crew, but they are at the very initial stage,” the source added.
The agency's source did not specify the flight dates for the second Russian cosmonaut, and the press center of RSC Energia (the company, as previously reported, is ready to start assembling the module), did not comment on this information to the agency.
The first flights of the crews to the lunar station will take place on American Orion spacecraft, which will be launched by super-heavy SLS missiles. The crew of the spacecraft for flights to the Moon will number up to four people. In the future, after the creation of the lunar version of the Federation spacecraft, Russian cosmonauts will be able to fly to the lunar orbital station using domestic technology.
Now Russia's participation in the Lunar Orbital Platform - Gateway project has not been fully determined. Previously, it was reported that the United States and its partners are forcing Russia to build an airlock module for spacewalks according to American technical standards and to use an American spacesuit instead of a Russian one. In turn, Russia offered to build a gateway module for US money or to share the costs of its creation with the European Space Agency. However, there is still no participation program approved at the level of Roscosmos or the government.
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Based on the text of the memorandum published on the website of the NASA aerospace agency, the appearance of the lunar orbital station Lunar Orbital Platform - Gateway, as well as the role of participation in its creation by different countries, including Russia, will become clear in the coming months.
“The goal for the summer of 2018 is to determine the distribution of functions among all partners (local and international) to such an extent that it is possible to start developing the rest of the station elements, except for the PPE (Power & Propulsion Element - the first module of the station, which is to go to the moon orbit in 2022 year)”, - stated in the published document.
Earlier it was reported that in addition to NASA, 14 space agencies are taking part in the project. At the moment, the American agency is studying various options for the possible composition and equipment of the station.
"Since the assembly and creation of equipment to support manned flights is a multi-year process, NASA will determine the appearance and basic capabilities of the Gateway in the summer of 2018," the memo says.
Nikolay Khizhnyak