Russia says it plans to send cosmonauts to the Moon next decade

Russia plans to send cosmonauts to land on the Moon next decade for the first time in its history and intends to build a moon base from 2031

Russia plans to send cosmonauts to land on the Moon next decade for the first time in its history and intends to build a moon base from 2031, according to the Russian corporation responsible for manned space flights, state news agency TASS reported.

A draft plan presented by Vladimir Solovyov of RKK Energia said that Russia was planning manned missions to the moon, including the first Russian human moon landing, along with a moon base, TASS said on Wednesday.

"Preparations for the deployment of a lunar base - 2031-2040," TASS quoted the draft plan as saying. The plan also spoke of exploiting the moon's resources.

In August, Russia's first moon mission in 47 years failed when its Luna-25 space craft spun out of control and crashed into the moon, underscoring the post-Soviet problems experienced by a once mighty space programme.

U.S. astronaut Neil Armstrong gained renown in 1969 for becoming the first person to walk on the moon, but the Soviet Union's Luna-2 mission was the first spacecraft to reach the moon's surface in 1959, and the Luna-9 mission in 1966 was the first to make a soft landing there.

Yuri Gagarin became the first human in outer space on April 12, 1961, but Soviet cosmonauts never did a human landing on the moon.