Cynicism really has no place here In answer to your comment If Malaysia announced plans for a lunar mission I d still report it I d comment on the likely probability of it cite the sources where it came from and discuss how it was meant to be fulfilled It really is irrelevant what we feel about an article as long as we report factually accurate information that is not misleading yes It is a fact that based upon Thirkettle s comment ESA intends to use Kliper for circumlunar missions That s it period We know nothing about launchers they plan to use or not use what funds they are allocating or even how likely it is The simple provenance of the source is good enough for me which is not to say that is guaranteed to be true as things change Wondering how they ll fund it what they ll launch it with or what missions they ll do is indeed pointless without evidence We have an ESA top man saying that Kliper will be used for independent circumlunar access We have more information about this than we even have about the Onega rocket and that s supposed to be the launcher for goodness sake nobody disputes that because it s boring but reliably reported As unlikely as it might be if the same director said we plan to launch Kliper with a Saturn 5 I d laugh my ass off but still report that he said it nonetheless