OREANDA-NEWS. May 18, 2010. Russia and US may decide on developing a joint project which covers design of new space engines for remote space missions, Russian Vice Premier told news media.

"For distant space missions, new propulsion is obviously required. Russian scientists believe it should be a nuclear propulsion, thus leading us to long-term and expensive projects which cover development of such engines. There is no agreement between Russia and US which implies this designing efforts so far, but it may appear during upcoming visit of Russian President Dmitry Medvedev to the USA", Ivanov stated.

According to the Vice Premier, ISS life will finish in 2020 or a bit later anyway, so the next decade provides some time to think over advanced space exploration projects, like missions to Mars or to the Moon.

“This objective is rather ambitious, so it’s worth uniting technological and financial capabilities of the two countries, and involve the world community”, Ivanov says.

He also reminded that Roscosmos and NASA have held two meetings in the framework of the space exploration special working group.