Russian space agency Roscosmos announced a tender Thursday worth nearly 10 billion rubles (about 300 million U.S. dollars) to design a new manned spacecraft.

Roscosmos said the design, worth 9.536 billion rubles, must be completed by 2016, and the tender result would be announced on Nov. 22.

In July, Energy Rocket-Space Corporation head Vitaly Lopota said the corporation has prepared a new-generation manned spaceship.

Lopota said Roscosmos had generally approved the Energy-proposed design of a returnable 20-ton spacecraft piloted by four crew members.

The main purposes of the new spaceship are conducting 180-day missions to the Moon, serving orbital stations and carrying out 10-day autonomous space travel.

The new spaceship will be launched from the Vostochny cosmodrome, which is under construction in the Far Eastern Amur region. Endi

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