MOSCOW, March 25. /TASS/. Russia’s State Space Corporation Roscosmos will cut the cost of launching a Proton-M carrier rocket to the level of a US Falcon 9 (produced by SpaceX) through lower expenses on ground-based preparations, Roscosmos Chief Dmitry Rogozin said on Monday.

"Proton-M rockets are about at the level of Falcons by their price. Now we have taken steps to reduce the cost of launch services for us by cutting some expenses on the Center for the Operation of Ground-Based Space Infrastructure. That is, we can save funds on preparations for a launch," the Roscosmos chief said.

"We will restore the competitiveness of Proton-M rockets compared to Falcons," he added.

The Proton-M is a Russian heavy three-stage carrier rocket produced by the Khrunichev Space Rocket Center. As Khrunichev CEO Alexei Varochko said in an interview with the business daily Kommersant, Russia is holding talks with the UK-based OneWeb on selling 10 Proton-M launch vehicles.

The production of Proton-M carrier rockets is expected to be over by the end of 2020 and their operation will come to a close in 2025. Protons will be replaced by new Angara heavy-class rockets.