The Kremlin is planning on installing a nuclear power plant on the moon in 2036 to power its space programme and research with China, as the fight for space dominance continues
Russia’s leader Vladimir Putin reportedly plans on putting a nuclear plant on the moon by 2036 to supply energy for a lunar space programme as well as a research station established with China.
As countries gear up for further space exploration, Russia announced that it has signed a contract with the Lavochkin Association aerospace company to do it, according to Russia’s state space corporation, Roscosmos.
Despite its historic dominance, Russia has faced setbacks over the years, particularly in August 2023, when its uncrewed Luna-25 mission crashed during a landing attempt. It comes after Vladimir Putin sent nuclear bombers over the Norwegian Sea on Christmas Day in a long-range flight threatening northern Britain.
In a statement, Roscosmos said: “The project is an important step towards the creation of a permanently functioning scientific lunar station and the transition from one-time missions to a long-term lunar exploration program.” The aim of the plant is to reportedly power Russia’s lunar programme, including rovers, an observatory and the infrastructure of the joint Russian-Chinese International Lunar Research Station, as per The Independent.
While the Kremlin hasn’t officially said the plant will be nuclear, the mission involves Russian state nuclear corporation Rosatom and the Kurchatov Institute, Russia’s leading nuclear research institute. This follows a real life Star Wars that erupted after an ex-International Space Station commander accused Russian cosmonauts of turning to the “dark side” – and backing Mad Vlad Putin’s “evil regime”.
Terry Virts, 57, an ex-US Air Force Top Gun pilot who has spent 213 days in space, said the station – jointly manned by Russian and American astronauts – had been plunged into a “dark nightmare” following Putin’s Ukraine invasion.
Launched in 1998, it helped unite the US and Russia following the Cold War with astronauts from both super powers working side-by-side in cramped conditions in orbit 250 miles above Earth.
But Virts – who commanded the in-orbit base in 2015 after blasting off in a Russian rocket – now wants the US Government to cut space ties with Putin after discovering former comrades were backing their despot president and even sitting in his parliament.
The retired NASA astronaut – an ex-Space Shuttle pilot – said seeing “my former friends and crewmates sell their souls to Putin has been one of the saddest and most maddening experiences of my life'”.
He said cosmonauts he had worked with had gone from “seemingly normal people” he had “considered friends” to “willing tools for evil” on the promise of “fancy SUVs, bougie apartments in Moscow, plum jobs for their kids, and the promise of more spaceflights”.
Virts said he and Russian cosmonaut Sasha Samokutayev had watched shocked together from the space station – aka ISS – as bombs dropped on Ukraine in a previous Putin attack in 2015.
But the spaceman he had considered an “old friend” – plus two other cosmonauts with whom he had flown – had since joined the Russian parliament as members of Putin’s party and “enthusiastically enabled” the war.
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