MOSCOW, April 8. /TASS/. The launch of the Start-1M rocket from the Vostochny Spaceport in Russia’s Far East has been postponed until next year, Alexey Davydov, head of the Roscosmos Reusable Launch Vehicles Department, said.
"We will be developing the light-class rocket at the Vostochny Spaceport. The private company Novy Start is primarily developing the Start-1M rocket at the Vostochny Spaceport with attracting non-governmental funding. <…> The first launch is planned for next year," he said at the Team of the Future forum at the Moscow Aviation Institute.
In the film entitled "Rokot Kosmodroma" (The Roar of the Spaceport), Roscosmos CEO Dmitry Bakanov said in late March that the new light-class rocket, the Start-1M, would be capable of launching a payload of up to 500 kg into low orbit.
The Start-1M’s predecessor, the Start-1, was based on the Topol ICBM. From 1993 to 2006, seven Start-1 launches were conducted: two from the Plesetsk Spaceport and five from the Svobodny (now Vostochny) Spaceport.