MOSCOW (Sputnik) — The Vostochny Space Center has been under construction in the Amur Region of Russia's Far East since 2012.
Once Vostochny is completed in 2018, it will enable Russia to launch most missions from its own soil, reducing the country's reliance on the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.
"Full-scale tests at the cosmodrome will start in two weeks…The timeframe for autonomous tests is 40 to 120 days," Komarov said during a teleconference between Moscow and the space station.
Comprehensive tests will be carried out on the Soyuz-2.1a carrier rocket that was delivered to the space center in September.
