Russia Mulls New In-country Launch Site

MOSCOW, Mar. 2, 2007/Satnews Daily/ ― The head of Russia's space agency said Russia was considering building another launch site for manned space missions to complement the historic Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, the world's oldest and largest launch facility.

Roscosmos head Anatoly Perminov said he would be provide more information about the new launch complex in a few weeks, and added that Roscosmos' proposal for a new launch site will be sent to the government. He said Russia was being thorough in its search for new launch site.

Russia's only other launch site at Plesetsk, located in Arkhangelsk Oblast, 800 km north of Moscow, is used only to launch unmanned missions. He noted, however, that the planned launch site would not compete against Baikonur.

Only this week, Russia began construction of a new launch facility for its workhorse Soyuz launchers at France's Guiana Space Center. Launching Soyuz from Kourou will make it possible to use French Guiana's equatorial position to significantly increase Soyuz's lift capability.

After an inaugural flight at the end of 2008, Soyuz will launch communication satellites into geostationary orbit, navigation satellites forming part of the European Galileo constellation, Earth observation satellites into polar orbit and interplanetary probes.

Soyuz has been launched 1,713 times so far, has placed 1,661 satellites in orbit around the Earth and has sent 91 Russian and 40 non-Russian cosmonauts into space. 

Russia leases Baikonur from Kazakhstan for $115 million a year. The Federation Council, the upper chamber of the Russian parliament, in 2005 ratified an agreement between Russia and Kazakhstan on extending Russia's lease of the Baikonur Cosmodrome until 2050.

Baikonur is fully equipped with facilities for launching both manned and unmanned space vehicles. It supports several generations of Russian spacecraft, including Soyuz, Proton, Tsyklon, Dnepr and Zenit. During the temporary halt to the U.S.' Space Shuttle program after the Columbia disaster in 2003, Baikonur played the key role in the re-supply and deployment of the International Space Station (ISS).

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