MOSCOW, April 25 (RIA Novosti) – The Russian Cabinet has tasked the country’s space agency Roscosmos with creating a coordination center for the Vostochny space center, currently under construction in the Far East, the Cabinet said Friday.
The instruction, available on the Cabinet's website, asks Roscosmos “to report on the creation of a coordination center for Vostochny Cosmodrome, its personnel, regulations and work agenda to the Government of the Russian Federation in May 2014,” adding that an expert review on the first stage development of the facility should also be completed by that time.
The new Vostochny space center is being built near the town of Uglegorsk in Russia’s Far East. Its first launch pad is planned to become operational next year, with a maiden operational launch slated for 2018. Sergei Makarov, the chief of the company tasked with building Vostochny’s first launch pad, said last week the work would commence on May 15.
Russia is building Vostochny, which will host the country’s new Angara rocket, to reduce its reliance on its main Baikonur space center in Kazakhstan.
