MOSCOW, October 10 (RIA Novosti) - The Luna-25 exploration mission will cost tens of billions of rubles, an official from Russian Federal Space Agency said Friday.
"Let's say, we are talking tens of billions of rubles because it's a resource-heavy project, complex in terms of technical feasibility," Roscosmos' strategic planning chief Yuri Makarov said at a press conference in Moscow.
Russia will go back to the moon by the end of the next decade with the moon missions, or Luna-Glob project, Luna-25, 26, 27, 28 and Luna-29, missions aimed at further exploring the moon.
A mission to the moon has become one of Russia's top priorities in space. Russia plans to launch three lunar spacecraft – two to the moon's surface and one into orbit – by the end of the decade.
In September, Russian space agency Roscosmos reported that it was planning to launch a full-scale moon exploration program. The program will be carried out mostly as part of the Russian Federal Space Program for 2016-2025. Russia is also looking at developing space exploration plans for 2050 and beyond.
