The Director of space agency Roskosmos' Manned Flight Programmes, Alexei Krasnov announced on Friday that for the sake of future manned missions to the Moon and Mars, Russia is thinking over to develop an orbital station to serve as an assembly platform and springboard.

He said, "We will soon propose to our government a project to construct a low-orbit complex, which could serve as a foundation for the implementation of the Lunar programme and later on - the Mars programme."

He further said that since the proposed low-orbit complex will be very expensive and technically complicated task to directly launch them from the Earth, it will also be utilized used to assemble spacecraft for interplanetary manned flights.

Krasnov said while addressing a press conference, "Like many other nations Russia is viewing the Moon as a destination in a mid-term perspective, and would want not only to go there, but to establish a lunar base, which would allow it to start exploring Mars in the future."

He concluded, "These are our intentions, but we are working hard to ensure that these plans get adequate financial and legislative support from the Government."