Spaceport – Cosmodrome “Vostochny”

[Ville]

LINK

The new Russian spaceport “Vostochny” (means “Eastern in Russian) is being built in the Far East. Construction is expected to be completed in 2018, first launch taking place in 2015, and price tag forecasted at $13.5 billion. As per Wiki, “no defensive military structures like those at Baikonur cosmodrome will be built at Vostochny” which, I think, is an interesting factoid given that it is located in the Amur region bordering China.

The big idea is, of course, to remove current dependency on Baikonur that was built in the fifties. Post-CCCP, Bailkonur now belongs to Kazakhstan, and is leased to Russia for hefty yearly fees. As of today, Baikonur remains the world’s largest spaceport with several launch pads that were built for ICBM testing.

[Osweo]

Excellent news.

More infrastructure, jobs, and in general life for the area. I was in Irkutsk not long ago, and things were certainly picking up there, but the region beyond Baikal is definitely in need of such a boost. No doubt a lot of my engineering friends will be pleased.

I thought Kazakhstan was getting on well with Putin, though. Ah well, Russia needs to look after itself first of all. I wonder if the Amur location is meant as a signal to the zheltie devils to the south after all?



PS. No doubt our member Radojica will be building the thing....