April 8, 2014
Categories: ISS, Mars, Moon, Russia, Space

RIA Novosti – A Russian astronaut Alexander Misurkin thinks humankind should not stop at the exploration of near-Earth space but rather go further in the universe, the explorer told RIA Novosti Tuesday.

“I think, we shouldn’t limit ourselves to exploring the Earth’s orbit. I, personally, would be interested in going to the outer space, exploring the asteroids, the Moon, and Mars. It’s a natural development for me, we have no right to stop at the orbit of our planet,” Misurkin said.

Misurkin was part of the international space station crew coming back to Earth in September 2013. The astronauts carried out 45 scientific research tasks in the 166 days they spent on board of the station. Misurkin and Fyodor Yurchikhin went into open space working there for 7,5 hours hitting record time for a Russian-made spacesuit.

“Coming back to the orbit is a logical development, because astronaut training is extremely expensive for just one flight,” he said expressing his willingness to participate in another space expedition.

Misurkin thinks that US sanctions on Russia can deal a heavy blow to space cooperation.

“I am more than sure that great achievements in space require collaborative work, there is no alternative here. I really hope this doesn’t happen and we continue cooperation all the while involving more and more countries in it,” the astronaut said.

NASA’s decision to suspend the majority of space cooperation projects with Russia in light of the geopolitical tensions around Ukraine was accepted not only with bewilderment among Russian space experts but also drew criticism inside the US space agency as well.

Image credit – RIA Novosti

More from this category:
January 20, 2015

On Monday, January 19, space flight participant Sarah Brightman who will be a crew member of Soyuz TMA-18M spacecraft started  her training in Gagarin Cosmonaut…

full story
February 28, 2019

On February 28 at 00:37 (Moscow time) from the Guiana Space Center the first OneWeb-pilot spacecrafts were launched with a “Soyuz-ST-B” rocket with an upper…

full story
October 13, 2020

Nauka (Science) module prelaunch preparation plan stipulates for cosmonauts trainings on module equipment. The launch of the module is planned for spring 2021. Last weekend…

full story
April 1, 2014

Roscosmos Head Councellor, Hero of Russian Federation, cosmonaut Yuri Lonchakov was officially appointed to the position of GCTC acting head, – Roscosmos press-office secretary Irina…

full story
July 16, 2020

On July 16, 1965, the first scientific station, Proton-1, was launched to conduct research in the field of nuclear and space physics. In accordance with…

full story
July 11, 2014

At 22:55:56, Moscow time, on July 10 Arianespace Company and Russian Federal Space Agency joint operational crews launched Soyuz-ST-B booster with Fregat-MT upper stage and…

full story
February 20, 2020

The Russian members of the main crew of the “Soyuz MS-16” manned spacecraft, Roscosmos cosmonauts Nikolay Tikhonov and Andrey Babkin, will be replaced by backups…

full story
September 6, 2019

At the Baikonur Cosmodrome is undergoing a planned preparations for the launch of the “Eutelsat-5WB” and “MEV-1” satellites by the “Proton-M” heavy carrier rocket. The…

full story