Prime Minister Vladimir Putin will visit Russia's Energia space corporation on Monday to discuss the plans for future space exploration, the government's press service said.

"During the visit...the space officials will deliver a report on the future of the Russian space industry," the press service said in a statement.

Russia plans to increase its share in the global space market by designing new models of unmanned and manned spacecraft, participating in a large number of international space projects and building a new space center.

Russian Soyuz and Progress spacecraft will continue to play a crucial role in maintaining the International Space Station after NASA folds its outdated shuttle program later this year.

The Energia corporation recently said it had the capacity to build five Soyuz spacecraft per year instead of four, meaning that at least one Soyuz spacecraft could be used for space tourism purposes in the future.

Russia is also pondering new applications for yet-to-be-built nuclear-powered spacecraft, including military satellites, nuclear power plants, and space tugs.

Federal Space Agency Roscosmos director Anatoly Perminov recently said the development of Megawatt-class nuclear space power systems (MCNSPS) for manned spacecraft was crucial if Russia wanted to maintain a competitive edge in the space race, including the exploration of the Moon and Mars.