Russia is planning to build a new space centre on its territory with a launch pad to send astronauts into space, Russian media reported on Wednesday. The announcement comes a day after South Korea announced plans to build a launch pad on its own soil for satellite launches.
“This will be a new field in Russia where manned missions can be launched from,” Russian space agency chief Anatoly Perminov told the Ria Novosti news agency from French Guiana, where work on another new Russian launch pad began on Monday (see Russian rockets to launch from South American base).
Ever since Yuri Gagarin became the first human to go into space in 1961, Russia has launched its manned space missions from Baikonur, Kazakhstan. Built in the 1950s, Baikonur is today one of only three launch pads for manned missions worldwide, along with the Kennedy Space Centre in the US state of Florida and the Chinese Jiuquan base.
In 1994, Russia agreed to rent the Baikonur base from Kazakhstan, which became an independent state after the collapse of the Soviet Union, for an annual fee of $115 million (87 million).
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According to the terms of an agreement signed in 2004, the lease of the base will not expire until 2050. Moscow has however repeatedly indicated that it wants to transfer a number of its launches – especially the military ones – to a space centre on Russian soil.
Southern island
Russia already has a launch pad on its territory, at Plesetsk in the northeastern Arkhangelsk region, but it is only used for satellite launches.
South Korea also plans to build a rocket launch pad on its own soil, though it will focus on uncrewed satellite launches. Hyundai Heavy Industries, the world’s largest shipbuilder, on Tuesday said it had won an order to build South Korea’s first space rocket launch pad.
The contract from the Korea Aerospace Research Institute calls for a launch platform and related facilities at the Naro Space Center on a southern island off the town of Goheung.
South Korea plans to launch a 100-kilogram (220 pound) satellite into orbit from Naro in October 2008. Construction of the space centre will be completed early in 2008.
Following completion of the project, South Korea will become the world’s ninth nation capable of launching a satellite with its own technology. So far it has relied on centres in other countries to send its satellites into orbit.
Financial terms were not given but Hyundai Heavy said it would build launch facilities, fuelling systems and a control room for the launch pad, which will be able to accommodate two rockets.
South Korea also plans to send its first citizen into space in April 2008 aboard a Russian spacecraft.
