Russia will start developing an international center for interplanetary spaceflights project in 2017, with the experimental phase kicking off in fall, the head of Russia's Institute for Biomedical Problems (RIBP) said Thursday.

"Work on the first experiment in this direction will be launched next year. The experimental phase will be held in autumn," Oleg Orlov told journalists.

Orlov noted that preparatory works on putting the facilities of the international center into operation were already underway.

Earlier in the day, Russia and the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) signed a cooperation agreement on a ground isolation program to prepare crews for future interplanetary spaceflights.

"A five-year program to conduct isolation experiments has been drafted. An agreement has already been signed with NASA," the Russian Academy of Sciences' RIBP Director Oleg Orlov told reporters.

Meanwhile, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced Saturday that in a few days he will hold a meeting on the development of the space industry up to 2030.

"In just a few days, we will discuss the strategy for the development of space industry until 2030. A meeting on this matter is set to be held in around five days," the president said at a meeting with workers of the Autodiesel plant in Russia's city of Yaroslavl.

Source: Sputnik News