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Construction of second stage of Vostochny spaceport goes ahead as scheduled - Roscosmos

We have employed more than 1,260 staff and 140 vehicles, head of the Russian space agency Dmitry Rogozin said

© Valery Sharifulin/TASS

MOSCOW, November 23. /TASS/. The construction of the second stage of Vostochny spaceport goes ahead according to the schedule, Dmitry Rogozin, head of the Russian space agency Roscosmos, said at a meeting with President Vladimir Putin on Saturday.

"Up to now, we have employed more than 1,260 staff and 140 vehicles, which is fully in accordance with the project of construction. The schedule is being kept despite the fact that it is rather cold there," Rogozin said.

Roscosmos head added that he himself oversees the construction work every month.

Roscosmos monitors construction of the second stage of Vostochny spaceport with the help of its satellite constellation, Rogozin said.

"We took a decision to apply the technology Roscosmos has, namely our Earth remote sensing satellite constellation, for objective control," he said.

According to Rogozin, the satellite surveying helps to record changes at the construction site throughout a week and "then the data is mathematically processed and markers show any changes. Among them is the amount of work and the number of equipment and even people."

The Roscosmos head pointed out that the space agency conducts additional aerial surveys with the help of drones in order to detail the data. He added that the state-run corporation receives "the entire amount of objective reports" about how construction is going ahead.

The Vostochny spaceport in the Amur Region in the Russian Far East is the first national civilian space center. Large-scale construction work to build the spaceport’s infrastructure and technical facilities started in 2012.

The Vostochny spaceport’s construction was accompanied by numerous problems. According to the data of the Prosecutor General’s Office, a total of 17,000 various violations were exposed during the construction of the Vostochny Cosmodrome in 2014-2018 and 140 criminal cases were opened while total damage was estimated at 10 billion rubles ($150 million). Dozens of individuals were convicted under various counts of Russia’s Criminal Code, including former head of Dalspetsstroi (the general contractor for the spaceport’s construction in 2009-2016) Yuri Khrizman.

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