During a recent meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Krasnikov said on the subject: “Russia is working on the Venera-D space program. This program specifically aims to search for signs of life on the planet Venus.”

Krasnikov had previously indicated to the Russian Novosti Agency that Russia’s space mission to study Venus is supposed to be launched in 2036, and it is likely to be launched at an earlier date, but the current plans of Russian scientists focus on sending a probe to explore the moon first.

Last October, Anatoly Petrokovich, Director of the Space Research Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, announced that design work for the Russian Venera-D mission, which is likely to be launched in 2035, will begin in 2026.

The “Venera-D” mission includes launching a probe around the planet Venus and a vehicle that will land on it to collect data. It was previously planned that this project would be joint with the United States, but in April 2022, the former head of the Russian “Roscosmos” Foundation, Dmitry Rogozin, said that the mission is now being developed by Russian specialists only, and it is expected that the “Venera-D” mission will be launched with the Russian “Angara-A5” heavy space rocket.

Source: Linta.ru