Russia to start flight-testing new cargo spacecraft in 2016-17

"We will make the new cargo ship more economical, less expensive than those used today," Vitaly Lopota said. He said the cargo spacecraft would be part of a new transport system also including a new manned spaceship and a new launch vehicle. RSC Energia won a tender for a conceptual design of a new manned spacecraft, worth 800 million rubles (about $25 million). Lopota said the new system is planned to be launched from at a new space center, Vostochny, in Russia's Far East, which is expected to take five years to build and enter service in 2015; Kazinform cites RIA Novosti. See www.en.rian.ru for full version.