Cosmonaut/Star City Chief Sergei Krikalyov is quoted in this article at MSNBC.com, “Russia still blue over moon landing”:
“Beginning with the first flight with a primitive capsule, and then getting to the moon, it was a great achievement for humanity,” Russian astronaut Sergei Krikalev said.
“Of course, we would have liked to see the first man on the moon be Soviet, Russian, but that’s life… Our own achievements were very many,” he told Associated Press Television News.
[…]
Russian space officials meanwhile still seem to be dreaming about winning the next stage of the space race. They keep talking in tantalizing terms about mounting a manned mission to Mars, although they say that would take at least another 20 years to get off the ground.
“I think this is fine. It’s like sports – at one stage one person wins, at another it’s somebody else,” said Krikalev.
I wonder if he will go into space again; in 2005 he said he would be willing to fly to the Moon if a program was developed.
“Soviet Top Secret Space Project Gets Second Life”, Roskosmos, 20/7. The NK-33 rocket engines used in the unsuccessful N-1 lunar rocket project are still quite advanced, and Russia and the USA are co-operating to make use of them.
