Russia's projected manned spacecraft capable of flights to the moon will not fly until 2018, the head of Russia's space agency, Roscosmos, Vladimir Popovkin, said on Wednesday. The previous date was scheduled on 2015-2016 years.

      Popovkin said a new six-seat ship could be adapted for a variety of missions - long autonomous missions, moon missions, trips to a space station placed between Earth and the moon, or even some objects beyond the moon.

      "We are thinking of higher orbits and more perspective tecnhologies, like those that will allow us to fly to Mars. So, in fact, we are developing a future system, and that process surely demands more time," Roscosmos head added.

      The new piloted spacecraft will replace the aging Soyuz craft on trips to the International Space Station as well as the moon. It is expected to land with precision in an area just one-tenth the size of the current Soyuz, which uses a parachute system to land. According to Popovkin, they want to create a reusarable craft and that will depend on "primarily on thermal-protective coatings, and we have different approaches to solve that issue".