Russia May Ditch ISS for Moon Program

By Matthew Bodner

The St. Petersburg Times

Published: October 16, 2014 (Issue # 1833)

According to Denis Lyskov, Russia's reluctance to commit to an ISS extension has more to do with resource allocation than politics. Photo: Pixabay

Russia may favor putting boots on the moon over financing for the International Space Station (ISS) program, Denis Lyskov, deputy director of federal space agency Roscosmos told news agency TASS on Wednesday.

"We have obligations [to the ISS] until 2020, which we will carry out," Lyskov said. "Concerning the future of the ISS, this decision is not for today. Some analysis needs to be carried out in connection with our lunar program, there needs to be a decision made on how long we need [the ISS]."

The ISS has found itself at the center of Ukraine's crisis, with Russian officials hinting that, in response to U.S. sanctions, Roscosmos may reject a NASA-backed proposal to extend the life of the space station beyond its current 2020 end date.

According to Lyskov, however, Russia's reluctance to commit to an ISS extension has more to do with resource allocation than politics.

Russia receives a relatively low scientific return on its investment in the space station, despite allocating about half of its annual civil space budget on it. Moreover, Roscosmos is now looking to land men on the moon after 2030 a goal the Soviets abandoned after losing the moon race to NASA in the late 1960s and early '70s.

With this in mind, Lyskov said Roscosmos has developed a special program for developing deep-space exploration, which envisions a manned flight to the moon after 2030, and a robot mission to Mars at some unspecified time.

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Russia May Ditch ISS for Moon Program