Russia and Belarus to use new Vostochny space launch facility jointly
MINSK. KAZINFORM Russia's Federal Space Agency /ROSCOSMOS/ said on Tuesday it would allow Belarus to participate in national space research programmes to be carried out at the Vostochny space launch facility in Russia's Amur region in the Far East.
The Vostochny space launch site is to begin operation next year. The facility is located near the town of Uglegorsk. More than 400 facilities, including 120 launchers, an airfield with a 4,500-meter runway, more than 170 kilometers of railways and roads are to be built at Vostochny. The first launches are to start in 2015. The construction of launch facilities for the Angara rocket will get under way in 2016. Russia also plans to start launching manned spaceships from Vostochny in 2018. Vice-Premier Dmitry Rogozin, who visits Vostochny at least once in three months, has taken the construction works, to be finished in 2020, under personal control. "We have very tough deadlines. The Vostochny spaceport is to begin operation in 2015. We will be ready to implement not only national programs but also the programs of Belarus which is a full-fledged space power," Yuri Makarov, the head of the ROSCOSMOS strategic planning department, said in his speech at the Belarusian space congress in Minsk, TASS reports.