Dmitry Rogozin , the head of the Russian Space Corporation Roscosmos deleted his memes that he posted on social media reacting to NASA's successful mission to Mars.
Dmitry Rogozin posted his scathing jokes on his Twitter and Telegram pages. To create one of the images, Rogozin used the first black and white image from Mars that NASA receive from Perseverance rover. Rogozin's face superimposed on the photo of the surface of Mars is seen peeking into the camera of the Martian rover. The caption to the picture says: "The first thing the Americans saw on Mars."
In another post, Rogozin posted a picture of a group of Martians holding up banners "Mars for Martians" and "Yankees, go home!"
The head of Roscosmos faced criticism for his posts on social media as many called his publications "the lowest of all jokes" that disgrace the cosmonautics.
The US rover successfully landed on Mars on Friday night and a few minutes later took the first picture of the Red Planet. The Kremlin and Roscosmos congratulated NASA on the successful landing. NASA experts plan to use the rover to find traces of life on Mars in distant past. The rover will work before 2026, when another rover will pick it up.
On Saturday, February 20, at a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Dmitry Rogozin reported on Roscosmos's plans to carry out 29 rocket launches in 2021.
"For the first time in 45 years, we are resuming the exploration of the Moon. In October [2021], the Luna-25, the first lander, will set on the lunar mission from Vostochny Cosmodrome. And then, as you know, we will proceed with the unmanned lunar exploration before we switch to the manned program," Rogozin said.
According to Rogozin, Roscosmos is ready to start a new manned program. The corporation is currently testing the strategic "Oryol" ("Eagle") spacecraft, which will be capable to take up to four cosmonauts to the Moon.
"We are starting its static tests in February. That is, it has already been assembled, and work is underway on this issue," the head of Roscosmos said.
The Russian concept for exploration of the Moon was announced in November 2018. It is designed for 20 years and consists of several stages. It is assumed that Russian cosmonauts will land on the Moon after 2030, after 2035 observatories will be built there.