MOSCOW, January 25 (Sputnik) – It will be interesting to watch the development of the U.S. manned program after U.S. President Donald Trump announced plans to send astronauts to Mars, but the goals of U.S. space research are constantly changing with the coming of a new president, said Oleg Kononenko, commander of the Russian Federal Space Agency’s astronaut program.
In his inaugural address, U.S. President Donald Trump announced his intention to pursue an ambitious space program that would include sending American astronauts to Mars.
Kononenko said: “I have found many times that the goal setting of US space exploration is changing with the coming of US presidents, because one president keeps saying we will fly to the moon, then another president comes to power and says we will build a space station, and then another one says no, we still have to land (on Mars). Let’s wait and see, Musk is very actively involved, he has his own interests, let’s see how the US manned program will develop.”
Earlier, The Hill reported that in order to quickly end the Ukrainian conflict, Trump may propose that Russia resume active cooperation in the aerospace industry and participate in the Artemis program, the main goal of which is to return humans to the moon and prepare for human landing on Mars.
In June 2024, Russian cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko became the first astronaut in the world to spend 1,000 days in space. The round-trip time to fly to Mars and return to Earth is about 1,000 days.
