Russia And Europe To Team Up For Manned Mars, Moon Mission

With the United States determined to maintain its place in the cosmos, it seems that Russia has struck a unique partnership with Europe that may enable both of them to secure their place among the heavens.

(RIA Novosti) The Russian and European space agencies will develop a manned transport spaceship for flights to the International Space Station, the Moon and Mars, the head of the Russian agency said Tuesday.

"We agreed today with Jean-Jacques Dordain, the head of the European Space Agency, to form a working group to deal with developing a piloted transport system to fly to the International Space Station, the Moon and Mars," Anatoly Perminov said after talks with Dordain on the sidelines of the MAKS-2007 air show in Zhukovsky, near Moscow.

While a partnership between the two may strike some as strange, both Russia and Europe could potentially benefit from relying on each others strengths. Russia currently lacks the funds for a lunar landing while Europe lacks the expertise.

Russia previously was attempting to partner with NASA for a lunar mission, although NASA was not too thrilled with that idea and seems to have chosen England instead.

Hopefully the nation that originally brought humanity to the cosmos is able to regain is "solar honor," as it would be embarrassing for future historians to refer to Russia as a "former space power."



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