[LINK] "Russia to invest US$810M in new space launch site"

[rfmcdonald]

Would a new spaceport in eastern Siberia offer Russian space rockets access to any particular advantageous set of orbits? The proposed Vostochny Cosmodrome looks, at least at first glance, to be as much an audacious effort at stimulating the economy of the Russian Far East as domestic backup for Kazakhstan's Baikonur.

Russia will build a new US$810-million space launch site as part of its efforts to defend its share of the increasingly competitive space launch market, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said on Monday.

Like in Soviet times, Russia dominates the global space industry, carrying out 37% of last year’s 78 launches around the world, according to the U.S.-based Space Foundation non-profit group.

But it faces growing competition from Europe, Asia and the United States as the market becomes increasingly commercialised.

Mr. Putin, whose ambition is to restore Moscow’s Soviet-era might, said the new Vostochny launch pad in Russia’s Far East region of Amur would be built in three years.

“I would like to stress that our task is to strengthen Russia’s positions in the global market of space services. We need to be competitive. The situation in global market is such that we will cope with this task,” Mr. Putin said.

“I hope that Vostochny will become the first Russian national cosmodrome of civilian use, that it will guarantee us full independence in our space activities,” he told a meeting of space industry officials.

The new facility aims to rival Kazakhstan’s Baikonur launch site when it opens for unmanned flights in 2015 and manned flights in 2018. Russia has been leasing Baikonur for US$115-million per year since the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991.

The current Baikonur lease ends in 2050.