Alexander AstafyevTASS via Getty Images
The head of the Russian space corporation Dmitry Rogozin offered unflattering comments about NASA’s Moon program in a recent interview with a Russian tabloid newspaper, Komsomolskaya Pravda.
When asked about Russia’s interest in sending humans to the Moon and possibly partnering with NASA, Rogozin dismissed the Artemis program. He replied: “Frankly, we are not interested in participating in such a project.”
The Russian space chief has publicly complained for some time that NASA has chosen a landing date for 2024 for political reasons. He also compared the efforts of the United States to build a sustainable exploration program on the Moon’s surface with the US invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq.
“It is more of a political project for the United States now,” Rogozin said of Artemis. “With the lunar project, we are seeing our American partners move away from the principles of cooperation and mutual support that have been developed with cooperation in the ISS. They see their program not as something international but similar to NATO.”
“Definitely our partner”
NASA has successfully worked with Russia for more than two decades on the International Space Program. Although NASA is clearly leading the development of the Artemis lunar exploration program, it has begun to discuss deep partnerships with Japan, Canada, and several European countries to expand the space station partnership.
Russia’s space program currently has no specific role in NASA’s plans to explore space beyond low Earth orbit. NASA is talking to Russia about building an airlock for the Lunar Gateway, a small space station orbiting the Moon, but US authorities suggest those talks are far from resolved.
In the interview, Rogozin spoke much more enthusiastically about collaborating with China on future exploration projects. “We respect their results,” said Rogozin, adding that the Asian nation “is definitely our partner” in the future.
“Today, relations between Russia and China are very good,” he said. “Both at the level of our presidents and at the level of political leadership in general.”
Rogozin said China has shared its exploration plans with Russia. However, China has not shared those plans in detail publicly. The country is expected to develop the Super-heavy lift Long rocket March 9 by the end of this decade, a booster that would provide the lifting capacity necessary to send Chinese taikonauts to the Moon in the 2030s.
