Reds Plan To Visit Moon And Red Planet

And isn't that appropriate...

MOSCOW, August 31 (RIA Novosti) - "Russia plans to send cosmonauts to the Moon by 2025 and establish a permanent manned base there in 2027-2032, the head of the space agency said Friday.

Anatoly Perminov said that in accordance with Russia's space program through 2040, a manned flight to Mars will be carried out after 2035.

He said that toward the end of this year, Russia will have 103 satellites in orbit, up from the current 95.

There are plans for a new space center in the country, but a site has not yet been selected, he said. Russia currently launches all manned flights from the Baikonur space center in Kazakhstan. Perminov said previously that construction of a new launch facility would only begin after a new type of spacecraft was built.

A major source of revenue for the agency in recent years has been space tourist flights from Baikonur to the International Space Station (ISS), with tickets currently priced at around $30 million. Russia has put five wealthy foreign tourists into space since 2001.

Perminov said the first Russian space tourist, who will fly to the ISS in 2009, is a businessman and politician.

"He asked me not to disclose his name yet. I can only say that he is a serious young Russian businessman and politician. He is currently undergoing medical tests."

The agency chief said that in 2016-25, after the ISS is put out of operation, Russia plans to deploy a platform in a low-earth orbit to assemble spacecraft.

The United States has said the station should be scrapped in 2015, while Russia has proposed using the Russian segment until 2020.

Perminov said: "The ISS will be transformed into a laboratory complex where research will be conducted."

2025 sounds about right for Russia to catch up to where we were in 1969. Then again, when left to their lonesome...and that means no one offering them our plans....the Reds have never been all that capable of leading the world in anything, but the smart money says they squeak out a moon landing, but forget them going to Mars in 2035 unless Chelsea Clinton becomes President and like her mom and dad, sells our secrets to the highest bidder for campaign contributions.