MOSCOW, June 29. /TASS/. The high cost price of the latest Angara carrier rocket before the start of its serial production is due to the need for the Khrunichev Space Center to work at two sites, the press office of the State Space Corporation Roscosmos told TASS on Monday.

"Before the production process is fully moved to the site of the Polyot company in Omsk, the Khrunichev Space Center has to work at two production sites, which creates additional overhead costs," a Roscosmos spokesman said.

As part of its trials, the Angara rocket is being produced singly instead of serially, he said.

"After the serial full-cycle production is launched, the item’s cost price will decrease," the spokesman said.

Also, the Angara will be created in its crewed version as compared to the Proton rocket, which pushes up its cost price due to additional safety requirements, he said.

Roscosmos also said that the rocket’s flight development tests would soon resume, noting that the space corporation’s enterprises "have already started implementing the stage of introducing a new generation of carrier rockets of all classes, from light to heavy versions, and will ensure their competitive operational and price characteristics."

Angara’s cost price

The Khrunichev Space Center earlier said in notes to its 2019 financial statements that the Angara rocket’s cost price would be lowered from 7 billion rubles ($100 million) to 4 billion rubles ($57 million) by 2024.

Roscosmos earlier said that the Khrunichev Space Center would produce several Angara carrier rockets at a price of less than 5 billion rubles ($71 million) as part of the experimental design work.

Roscosmos Chief Dmitry Rogozin said in January 2019 that the space corporation had adopted an action plan to raise the Russian launch vehicles’ competitive edge, with a special emphasis made on Angara and Soyuz-5 rockets.

The Angara is a family of next-generation Russian space rockets. It consists of light, medium and heavy carrier rockets with a lifting capacity of up to 37.5 tonnes. The new family of rockets uses environmentally-friendly propellant components. So far, Russia has carried out only two Angara launches, both of them from the Plesetsk spaceport: a light Angara-1.2PP blasted off in July 2014 and its heavy version lifted off in December 2014.