MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Russia will start developing an international center for interplanetary spaceflights project in 2017, with the experimental phase kicking off in fall, the head of Russia's Institute for Biomedical Problems (RIBP) said Thursday.
"Work on the first experiment in this direction will be launched next year. The experimental phase will be held in autumn," Oleg Orlov told journalists.
Orlov noted that preparatory works on putting the facilities of the international center into operation were already underway.
Earlier in the day, Russia and the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) signed a cooperation agreement on a ground isolation program to prepare crews for future interplanetary spaceflights.
