VOSTOCHNY SPACEPORT, August 16. /TASS/. The construction of the infrastructure for the Angara carrier rocket at the Vostochny spaceport will begin no sooner than the spring of 2018, the CEO of the research institute of launch complexes (NIISK) at the Center for Operation of Ground-Based Space Infrastructure said on Wednesday.

"Most likely, this year will be spent on approving everything [the design documentation] and from next year digging will probably start," NIISK CEO Ruslan Mukhamedzhanov said.

"The documentation will be approved but most likely winter will come by this time, the soil will be frozen and it will be problematic to dig. Apparently, the digging work will start when it is warm," the chief executive said.

The commencement of actual work should not be expected sooner than next year as "there are a lot of organizational inter-departmental issues that can’t be resolved quickly," he said.

Russia to spend $630 mln on launch pad for Angara carrier rocket at Vostochny spaceport.

About 38 billion rubles ($630 million) are planned to be spent on building the launch facility for Angara carrier rockets at the Vostochny spaceport, according to the documents of State Space Corporation Roscosmos posted on the website of state purchases on August 11.

"The intended (maximum) cost of the construction of the launch compound with one launcher in compliance with the design documentation developed by the 31st State Design Institute of Special Construction and the construction’s consolidated estimate calculation in 2017 prices is 37,752.3 million rubles," the document says.

The specified sum does not include the development, manufacture and assembly of technological equipment at the launch compound, the materials say.

According to the Roscosmos document, the construction completion and the commissioning of this infrastructure are scheduled for 2022.

Russian Deputy Defense Minister Timur Ivanov who visited the Vostochny spaceport in the Russian Far East in late May was informed that the construction of the launch pad for the Angara carrier rocket at this cosmodrome would cost 58 billion rubles ($968 million) and would be completed in 2023.

As was reported earlier, Roscosmos planned to hold an open tender among companies in the fall of 2017 for a contract for building the second stage of the Vostochny spaceport, including the launch facility for Angara carrier rockets and other infrastructural facilities.

Vostochny spaceport and Angara carrier rocket

The Vostochny spaceport in the Amur Region in the Russian Far East has been under construction since 2010. Last year, the first launch from the cosmodrome’s launch pad took place and the construction of its second stage is planned for 2018.

Russia’s Federal Agency for Special Construction (Spetsstroy) was earlier in charge of the spaceport’s construction; however, it was later abolished due to the numerous complaints of customers and the bodies of power about the time limits of fulfilling the works and the financial discipline of enterprises subordinate to Roscosmos. Specifically, a large number of violations during the construction of the Vostochny spaceport was highlighted.

Roscosmos Head Igor Komarov earlier told journalists that the construction of the second launch pads for the Angara carrier rocket at the Vostochny and Plesetsk spaceports would begin after 2025.

The Angara is the family of new-generation Russian rockets. It consists of unified light carrier rockets Angara-1.1 and Angara 1.2 and their heavy version Angara-A5.

The first test launch of the heavy Angara-A5 carrier rocket with a lifting capacity of up to 24 tonnes took place at the Plesetsk cosmodrome in the Arkhangelsk Region on December 23, 2014.

It was reported earlier that the first launch of the heavy Angara-A5M carrier rocket was scheduled to take place at the Vostochny spaceport in 2021.