Windows 7: Russians say they intend to establish permanent moon bases

At Washington meeting between heads of national space agencies, Russia's space agency puts down a moon marker.



The United States may have its sights set on a mission to Mars or manned missions to asteroids sometime in the future, but the Russians have a closer space goal in mind. Vladimir Popovkin, who runs the Russian space agency, Roscosmos, said during a pantel discussion in Washington that Russia intends to press ahead with long-term human operations on the surface of the moon. "We're not talking about repeating what mankind achieved 40 years ago," Popovkin said. "We're talking about establishing permanent bases."

Good, that should get NASA some funding, there's nothing like the threat of being outdone by another country to get a government moving.