Perminov: New Vostochny Spaceport to Have Limited Impact on Baikonur Operations

Roscosmos Head Anatoly Perminov

ROSCOSMOS PRESS RELEASES

Construction of new Russian space port Vostochny won’t impact Baikonur’s operations, Head of Russian Federal Space Agency Anatoly Perminov said during the press conference  after the 13th meeting of the Baikonur Subcommittee of the Russian Federation and the Republic of Kazakhstan Intergovernmental Cooperative Board hosted by Astana on Nov. 9-10.

“Design and research efforts are ongoing currently at Vostochny. In other words, we are preparing the territory for further construction. It will continue at least for the first half of 2011,” Roscosmos Head stated.

Perminov said that construction of Vostochny will not cause major changes in the operations at Baikonur as only some programs will be transferred to the new space port.

“Modified Soyuz, Proton, Zenith facilities will be kept at Baikonur. Of course, they will be modified somehow, and this will require funding,” Perminov noted.

According to him, commercial companies will most likely finance the modifications in the future. On the other hand, it is not reasonable leaving the facilities which had been in use for 50 years.

“We had faced a similar situation in the past – when everything was abandoned as unneeded. And we restored it. It occurred to be needed,” Roscosmos Head concluded.

Perminov co-chaired the annual meeting with Talgat Musabaev, head of the Kazakh Space Agency.  The parties discussed issues related to usage of the Baikonur facility, coordination of inseparable improvements in Baikonur’s objects and assets, renting of the drop zones in Kazakhstan by Russia, and pension assurance for Baikonur’s citizens.

The Roscosmos chief noted that the construction of the Baiterek rocket-space complex at Baikonur is carried out in line with the Russian-Kazakh agreement. As the complex will use Angara launcher, the work here is pending Angara 0-5 flight tests at Plesetsk scheduled for 2013, he added.

Perminov was also questioned about the fight of a Kazakh cosmonaut to the International Space Station. Roscosmos Head stated that Russian party had fulfilled all its commitments wrt training of the cosmonaut.

“We had several agreements which covered training of a Kazakh cosmonaut. We fulfilled all the commitments paid by the Kazakh party. The mission to the ISS was not paid. Later on, when Kazakhstan got the opportunity to pay, there was no seat in the vehicles as the human missions had been scheduled for two years ahead,” Perminov said.

The Roscosmos chief declared the two-day meeting to be a success and  thanked all the experts of both parties for their productive work.

“I believe that the attendees will agree that our meeting was productive and completed successfully by approval of the protocol,” Perminov said.

The next meeting of the subcommittee is to take place in Moscow in October 2011.

Also this week, the city of Blagoveschensk on Nov. 11 hosted a meeting of Russian specialists to discuss the Vostochny space port construction and development in Amur region.

The meeting held with support of the regional Government was attended by representatives of Roscosmos and other organizations which deal with Vostochny project.

Tomorrow, a “round table” will take place in Uglegorsk, the place of future Vostochny location. It will provide the opportunity for various experts to discuss the future of the newly-developed Russian Vostochny space port, including practical objectives related to construction of the infrastructure.