MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 13th March, 2020) Russia should immediately begin developing a new manned spacecraft for low Earth orbital operations, Dmitry Rogozin, the director of the Federal space agency Roscosmos, said on Friday.
"I believe it is very important to immediately begin developing a new Russian manned spacecraft for operations in low orbits and for the operation of our new orbital stations. We should move forward, we must not stand still," Rogozin said in a celebratory address to the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center on the occasion of its 60th anniversary.
He did not specify, though, whether he meant developing a brand new manned spacecraft or the Orel (formerly known as Federatsiya), Russia's next-generation spaceship that has been in the works since 2009.
The Orel is being designed for deep space missions, primarily in lunar orbit. The spacecraft will also be able to replace the Soyuz launchers, currently the only means of transporting astronauts to the International Space Station.
