Western Sanctions from 2014 Killed Off Russia’s Lunar Flight Program, Moscow Space Expert Says

Paul Goble

            Staunton, Jan. 16 – Until 2014, Rusia had plans to fly men to the moon that were “even more advanced than those of China and the US,” Ivan Moiseyev says; but then, when Western sanctions were introduced as a result of Putin’s moves in Ukraine, the Russian space agency removed “almost all lunar elements” from Moscow’s space program.

            The reason was simple, the head of the Moscow Institute of State Policy says. The sanctions introduced after Putin seized Ukraine’s Crimea prevented the Russian space agency from getting most of the avionics needed for a flight to the moon; and once that became obvious, “almost all lunar elements were removed from the federal space program for 2016 to 2025” (svpressa.ru/science/article/499014/).

            For the time being, Russia can only watch as other countries make the kind of progress it can’t; and restarting a Russian lunar effort will be difficult and take time because the whole project has been suspended for so long.  Moiseyev doesn’t say why China, which produces its own avionics, isn’t providing them to its Russian ally.