Russia eyes lunar fly-by expedition beyond 2030

MOSCOW, March 26 (Xinhua) -- Russia plans to send a manned spacecraft to fly by the Moon after 2030, a local official said Tuesday.

"This task has set for (a period) after 2030," said Anatoly Malchenko, deputy head of the Central Research Institute of Machine Building (Tsniimash), which is managed by the Russian federal space agency Roscosmos.

The United States planned to fly by the Moon in 2021, Malchenko told an innovation forum.

"The year of 2021 is an unbearable task for us but after 2030 the manned flight will happen. It will be not just a flight, but an exploration mission," Malchenko said.

Malchenko noted that the Russian space industry currently works to build a new-generation manned spaceship and the country would launch 68 spacecraft in total by 2015.

"All of them have been in the making now," he said.

According to the federal program of space research, Russia will operate 95 satellites in 2015 and 113 by 2020.