Nasa Designing Spacecraft for Manned Flights to Moon, Mars

MOSCOW. Oct 24 (Interfax) – The U.S. Aeronautics and Space Administration is designing a manned spaceship for flights beyond the Earth’s orbit, said NASA chief Sean O’Keefe.

The spaceship will be used to fly to the Moon and Mars, O’Keefe said at a news conference in Korolyov outside Moscow on Sunday morning.

He said the work is proceeding at a fast pace and is part of the Constellation Project. The first manned launch has been set for 2008, he said.

O’Keefe also said that NASA will probably draw international partners to U.S. space programs, noting that cooperation with other space agencies will be discussed at a symposium in Washington in November.

He said Russia will be the United States’ number one partner in exploring outer space, taking its vast experience into account.

He said that he had recently discussed future automatic flights to the moon with Federal Space Agency chief Anatoly Perminov.