Russia's Roscosmos space agency has announced a ten-million ruble ($300,000) tender for a Moon rocket design, according to the official website that tracks state purchases. 

      All proposals must be submitted before August 28 and also must lay out the details of the rocket-carrier itself as well as the ground systems. The result of the preliminary selection will be announced on September 6, 2012. The whole project itself must be completed by May 31, 2013.

      The new manned spaceship is expected to replace the aging Soyuz spacecraft on trips to the International Space Station, as well as fly to the moon.

      The heavy moon rocket is expected to be designed on a basis of the "Angara" spaceship and launched from the Vostochny Cosmodrome in the Amur Region.

      Earlier, on July 18, Roscosmos’s head Vladimir Popovkin said that the country’s planned manned spacecraft capable of flights to the moon will not fly until 2018.