Article Posted on : - Dec 07, 2009

The Soyuz FG rocket will launch manned missions.

MOSCOW (BNS): Chalking out its plans for next year, Russian federal space agency Roscosmos has said it will launch 10 spacecraft to the International Space Station, four of which will be manned missions.

While it will use Soyuz-U rocket to deliver a Progress space freighter to the orbit, the Soyuz-FG launch vehicle will be used to send manned spacecraft.

The first two Soyuz carrier rockets have already arrived at the Baikonur space center in Kazakhstan ahead of the launches, RIA Novosti said.

The MRM-1 space module, which will deliver additional cargo storage and docking facilities to the Russian segment of the ISS, will be launched by NASA in May 2010, it said.

Russia plans to add a multipurpose scientific module and two energy modules to the ISS in the next three years and continue rotating at least two cosmonauts as part of the station's six-member crew, the report said.