STAR CITY, September 23 /ITAR-TASS/. Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin said on Tuesday that the first manned spaceship would be launched from a new Vostochny space launch facility in the Russian Far East on time and without delay.

“I would like to fix one very vital date which no one should call into question. I mean the year 2018 and the first manned launch from Vostochny (which is still under construction),” Rogozin told trainees at the space training center which he visited on Tuesday.

The vice-premier who visits Vostochny, located near the town of Uglegrosk, at least once in three months has taken the construction works under personal control.

President Putin visited Vostochny during his trip of the Urals, Siberia and the Far East in the first days of September. More than 400 facilities, including 120 launchers, an airfield with a 4,500-meter runway, more than 170 kilometers of railways and roads are to be built at Vostochny. The first launches are to start in 2015. The construction of launch facilities for the Angara rocket will get under way in 2016. Russia also plans to start launching manned spaceships from Vostochny in 2018.