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Second launch from Russia's new spaceport set for 2017 — space corporation

The new spaceport will reach full capacity in 2018 when at least five launches will be conducted from the facility

© Marina Lystseva/TASS

MOSCOW, April 12. /TASS/. The second launch from the Vostochny spaceport in the Amur Region in the Russian Far East will take place in 2017, Russia’s State Space Corporation Roscosmos Head Igor Komarov said on Tuesday.

"The second launch will take place next year. We need time to complete work so that the spaceport entered the working mode," Komarov told the Rossiya-24 TV channel.

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Komarov said earlier that the new spaceport will reach full capacity in 2018 when at least five launches will be conducted from the facility.

The construction of the Vostochny space launch center in the Amur region began in 2012. It occupies an area of about 700 sq. km. It is destined to become the first national facility for civilian space launches, ensuring Russia’s full-scale access to outer space and reducing the dependence of the Russian space industry on the Baikonur space center in Kazakhstan.

The first liftoff from Vostochny was initially set for December 25, 2015 but was later rescheduled for April 27, 2016.

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Russia's new spaceport: Vostochny cosmodrome

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