By Ellie Zolfagharifard Russia has announced plans to build a super-heavy carrier rocket that could propel its cosmonauts to Mars. The rocket will rival Nasa's Space Launch System (SLS) which is expected to come in two variants capable of lifting 70 and 130 tonnes into orbit. Construction of the first stage of Russia's super-rocket - capable of lifting 80 tonnes - is already underway, according to Roscosmos chief Oleg Ostapenko. Scroll down for video... The final frontier: A Russian Soyuz rocket takes off for the International Space Station last month. The Kremlin has announced plans to o build a super-heavy carrier rocket that will propel its cosmonauts to Mars
@highlight
Roscosmos chief said construction of first stage of rocket is underway
@highlight
Second stage is to build a rocket capable of lifting 120 tonnes into space
@highlight
It will rival Nasa's Space Launch System scheduled to launch in 2017
@highlight
Earlier this month, Russia said that by 2040, it plans to create a lunar base for long-term missions to the moon
But there could be hope of a new space race - as @placeholder announced earlier this month of  hopes to land humans on Mars within 20 years.