All news

Russia to build $580 mln launch pad for Angara carrier rocket by 2023

It was reported earlier that the first launch from the new pad was scheduled for 2021

MOSCOW, August 28. /TASS/. The construction of a launch pad for the new Angara carrier rocket is expected to be over before December 31, 2022 and will cost almost 39 billion rubles (about $580 million), according to documents posted on the government procurement web portal on Tuesday.

It was reported earlier that the first launch from the new pad was scheduled for 2021 and about 38 billion rubles were planned to be channeled into the construction of the launch infrastructure for Angara rockets.

The notice of making a purchase from the sole supplier posted by the Vostochny cosmodrome directorate indicates that payment will be effected in two tranches. Construction companies will get about 6.4 billion rubles ($95 million) in 2018 and around 32.3 billion rubles ($480 million) in 2021.

"The products are to be delivered or works are to be concluded by December 31, 2022," the documents say.

Russia’s State Space Corporation Roscosmos earlier said that a contract with the construction company Kazan for building the second stage of the Vostochny cosmodrome would be signed in late August and work would begin in early September.

Before that, Roscosmos Chief Dmitry Rogozin said that the contract would be signed in the first days of August, after which the construction would begin in the first ten-day period of the month.

The first launch site at the Vostochny space center was built in 2012-2016 for Soyuz rockets and the first launch from it was carried out on April 28, 2016.