As specified, such measures are necessary for the development of space tourism
MOSCOW, December 16. /tass/. Roscosmos Director General Dmitry Rogozin at a meeting of the industry operational headquarters instructed the Rocket and Space Corporation (RSC) Energia to develop a plan to increase the production of Soyuz MS manned spacecraft. This was reported to journalists on Thursday in the press service of Roscosmos.
"I instruct RSC Energia to submit to the Roscosmos State Corporation a concrete action plan to increase production capacity in order to manufacture up to four manned ships per year," Rogozin was quoted as saying in the press service.
As specified, such measures are necessary for the development of space tourism. In turn, the head of Roscosmos stressed that tourism brings money that goes to modernize the rocket and space industry.
Rogozin also recalled that after the start of the flights of American manned spacecraft, Russia was relieved of its obligations to deliver foreign astronauts to the ISS. "We got the opportunity to send crews of three Russian cosmonauts to the station. The first such crew of professional cosmonauts will fly to the ISS in the spring," he added.
Earlier, the head of Roscosmos told reporters that one Soyuz spacecraft is currently in production for the flight of space tourists in 2023. He noted that he asked to reconsider the production of transport ships in favor of manned ones. By 2024, it is planned to produce two "Unions" for tourists.
At the beginning of December, Rogozin, at a meeting with Russian members of the cosmonaut squad, said that Roscosmos does not plan to give the USA the niche of space tourism and is ready to "fight" for it.
