MOSCOW, April 19. /TASS/. The first Angara carrier rocket will be delivered to the Vostochny spaceport in the Russian Far East by September and its launch is scheduled for the end of this year, Amur Region Governor Vasily Orlov told TASS on Wednesday.

"The construction of the second launch pad for the Angara rocket is nearing completion there [at the Vostochny spaceport]. The construction proceeds on schedule, despite all the complexities related to sanctions and, primarily, COVID-19 restrictions. The Angara is due to be delivered soon and will be at the spaceport already in September with its subsequent launch. The launch is due to take place at the end of this year, according to plan," the governor said.

The development of the entire adjacent infrastructure and specialized education in the space sphere depend on the number of launches from the cosmodrome, he said.

"The social data that we gather indicates that young people who make decisions to enroll precisely at these courses largely proceed from romantic considerations. Correspondingly, romanticism manifests itself in these launches and it is important that their number should grow. I hope that eventually manned cosmonautics will be transferred to the Vostochny spaceport. At least, such discussions are underway. In this case, the cosmodrome will get an extra impetus," he added.

The second stage of the construction of the Vostochny spaceport in the Amur Region stipulates building the launch compound for next-generation Angara carrier rockets. The construction began in June 2019 and assembly work started in December that year.

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 tons. The new family of rockets uses environmentally-friendly propellant components. The first three launches of Angara heavy rockets took place from the Plesetsk spaceport on December 23, 2014, December 14, 2020 and December 27, 2021. The launch of a light Angara rocket took place on July 9, 2014 (the suborbital test flight) and on April 29, 2022 (the orbital flight).

Russia plans to launch the serial production of Angara carrier rockets in 2024.