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Russia to step up control over new spaceport construction — deputy PM

The construction of the launch facility at Russia's new Vostochny Cosmodrome is 120 days behind schedule
Vostochny cosmodrome construction site on December 25, 2014, one year ahead of the first launch Vladimir Smirnov/TASS
Vostochny cosmodrome construction site on December 25, 2014, one year ahead of the first launch
© Vladimir Smirnov/TASS

MOSCOW, April 1. /TASS/. Control over the construction of the Vostochny (Eastern) cosmodrome in Russia’s Far East will be stepped up to secure the launch of the Soyuz-2 rocket in December 2015, Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin said on Wednesday.

"The decision has been made to step up control over the construction of all 12 facilities of the so-called launch minimum," he said at a news conference on the Vostochny cosmodrome construction progress. "It should be done to ensure the launch of the Soyuz-2 rocket from the cosmodrome in December this year, pursuant to the president’s decree."

Dmitry Rogozin, who, among other things, is in charge in the government of the defence industry sector, said the construction control system has been changed. Now the government’s situation control centre will decide all issues related to the Vostochny cosmodrome construction in a videoconference mode. "We will hold such meetings in an enlarged format once a month within the Russian presidential commission on the cosmodrome construction matters." On Rogozin’s instruction, the National Defence centre will also be involved in the monitoring of the works at the cosmodrome.

Head of the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos) Igor Komarov said that the works on the launch facility are 120 days behind schedule, on the command post - 60 days behind schedule. According to him, the technological equipment of the launch facility is 91% ready, the technical area - 95% ready and the fuelling station - 71% ready. Komarov said his agency demanded to ensure cleanness and the required temperature in the cosmodrome premises. "We have no right to install costly equipment in the current conditions," he said.

Dmitry Rogozin has prohibited the cosmodrome equipment installation in unprepared premises: "I’d like to support the thesis that sophisticated technological equipment cannot be placed in unprepared premises. Moreover, I expressly prohibit this in order to prevent future readjustment works, which would put at risk the launches of our carrier rockets and spacecraft."

The utility systems’ installation will be completed in June. To adjust the construction work schedule it has been decided to increase the number of workers. First Deputy Director of Russia’s Special Construction Agency (Spetsstroy) Alexander Zagorulko said that "an additional mobilisation of 1,400 people from six enterprises of Spetsstroy of Russia is currently underway."

The cosmodrome is being built near the Uglegorsk town in the Amur region that will soon get the name of Konstantin Tsiolkovsky. The complex will include two launch facilities, an aerodrome, cosmonauts’ flight training facilities, an oxygen-nitrogen plant and hydrogen plant, 115 kilometres of automobile roads and 125 kilometres of railways and other facilities.

The first rocket to be launched from Vostochny is to be the Soyuz-2.1a, made by the Progress Rocket and Space Centre. The carrier rocket will place into orbit the Samara satellite Aist-2, the SamSat-218 nanosatellite of the Samara State Aerospace University and the Lomonosov satellite of Moscow State University (MGU).