VOSTOCHNY SPACEPORT /Amur Region/, December 16. /TASS/. Twenty launches of the Soyuz carrier rocket are planned for 2020, according to a video shared by state space corporation Roscosmos Director General Dmitry Rogozin at a press conference at the Vostochny cosmodrome on Monday.

"Twenty launches of the Soyuz carrier rocket," according to the video.

It was also noted in the video that the work on the construction of carriers is in full swing.

As of now 22 flight vehicles have lifted off in 2019, among them Soyuz-2 rockets of various modifications and Rokot. That number includes three manned launches and one unpiloted launch of manned spacecraft.

Sfera orbital group

Roscosmos plans to allocate funds to embark on the development of the Sfera orbital group layout in 2020, Director General Dmitry Rogozin said on Monday. "We plan to embark on the financing of the first works to form the layout of that global orbital group," he commented.

In 2019, "the systemic project on the shift to the new orbital group Sfera" was implemented, Roscosmos chief added.

The Sfera program was introduced by Russian President Vladimir Putin during his annual Q&A session on June 7, 2018. Russia plans to launch over 600 communications and Earth’s remote sensing satellites in the next few years, he informed.

Deputy Prime Minister Yuri Borisov said earlier in an interview with Vedomosti business daily that the government included the project for the creation of the Russian orbital satellite group Sfera into the budget for 2020-2022. The plan is to allocate over 10 bln rubles ($159.5 mln) for it.