Russia wants to send cosmonauts to the moon by 2030

Russia’s space agency is planning a manned flight to the moon by the year 2030.

Roscomos Energia, the Russian equivalent of NASA, announced earlier this week on Tuesday at a Moscow space and technology conference that “A manned flight to the moon and lunar landing is planned for 2029,” according to Business Insider.

However, unlike the Space Race between the United States and the then Soviet Union in the 1960s, this mission will be a collaborative effort between international bodies, as Russia will be teaming up with the European Space Agency (ESA) in its quest for a lunar landing.

The ESA made history last year by landing the first spacecraft on a comet, and has expressed ambitions in establishing a permanent base on the moon.

“We have an ambition to have European astronauts on the moon,” said Bérengère Houdou, head the lunar exploration group of ESA’s European Space Research and Technology Centre (ESTEC). “There are currently discussions at international level going on for broad cooperation on how to go back to the moon.”

Despite boasting many space race firsts, such as sending the first animal in orbit and sending the first human in space flight, Russia never managed to send a man to the moon, due to technical difficulties and engineering problems. If this upcoming lunar mission is successful, Russia will join the United States in the historic achievement of landing men on the moon.

In the meantime, NASA is planning to send humans to an asteroid by 2025 and Mars by the 2030s.