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Roscosmos to create infrastructure for inter-planetary spacecraft at Vostochny

Vladimir Putin earlier said Russia will be exploring deep space from the Vostochny spaceport in cooperation with US partners

MOSCOW, September 7. /TASS/. Russia’s space corporation Roscosmos plans to create an infrastructure for launching inter-planetary spacecraft with super-heavy rockets from the Vostochny spaceport, sources in the corporation have told TASS.

As President Vladimir Putin told the Eastern Economic Forum earlier on Thursday, Russia would be exploring deep space from the Vostochny spaceport in cooperation with US partners. There is interest towards joint exploration of Mars by 2030 jointly with US partners.

Roscosmos said it develops the "Vostochny spaceport, which will be used for a variety of purposes, including deep space missions."

"There are plans for building infrastructures of super-heavy rockets capable of putting in space interplanetary spacecraft," the corporation’s officials said.

"We cooperate with partners on a variety of subjects. We discuss the Moon and Mars. Working groups keep in touch. Discussion is in progress on advancing these projects and on the format of each country’s participation," Roscosmos officials said.

The corporation promised to inform the public at large about specific agreements on these missions.

The Vostochny spaceport has been under construction in the Amur Region since 2010. The first space launch took place last year. The cosmodrome’s second unit is expected to be built in 2018. The original contractor - the federal agency for special construction (Spetsstroi) - has been abolished following numerous complaints from the clients and authorities over failures to meet the deadlines and poor financial discipline of the agency’s subcontractors.

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