[X] My Assistant

[Guest_Zvezdichko_*]

according to the last information at roscosmos.ru

Russia now officially targeting 2027 for her first manned mission to the moon surface

[Big_Gazza]

In response to Dvandorns' posting, I think it should be added that the Soviets would never have considered launching a Salyut or Almaz-derivative in a manned condition, as there was no crew ejection system and mass of such plus crewmen would reduce the overall payload capacity. To their credit, the Soviets never launched any manned missions without a crew escape system (unlike the US with its shuttle), even the Buran pad was provided with a rapid escape tunnel and the orbiter was to be fitted with ejection seats (though I suspect that this was probably only intended for the planned test flights).

I don't consider that the Soviets were overtly reckless or uncaring of mission safety, as in political terms, dead cosmonauts are not useful for propaganda purposes. I do accept though that propaganda dictates did override sensible engineering judgement at times (eg 3-man Vostok, 3 -man early Soyuz without pressure suits) which ultimately led to the Soyuz 11 tragedy. After that, they seemed to learn and accept the hard lesson.

[dvandorn]

In response to Dvandorns' posting, I think it should be added that the Soviets would never have considered launching a Salyut or Almaz-derivative in a manned condition, as there was no crew ejection system and mass of such plus crewmen would reduce the overall payload capacity.

As I understood it, Almaz was in fact designed to be launched manned, and was redesigned to add a docking port only after the decision was made not to attempt to man-rate the Proton.

The original crew return capsule on the Almaz was eventually used for film recovery from the reconnaissance camera -- but it was indeed originally designed to return the crew, not just film.

-the other Doug