Article Posted on : - Oct 15, 2009

A File Photo of Plesetsk space center in Arkhangelsk Oblast. Image Credit: Ministry of Defense of Russia.

MOSCOW (BNS): Russia’s new Vostochny space centre to be built in the country’s far Eastern Amur Region will cost an estimated 400 billion rubles ($13.5 billion), the federal space agency Roscosmos said Thursday.

Construction of the new space center likely to begin in 2011 will ensure Russia's independence in the launch of piloted space vehicles.

Design and survey work has begun for the new space centre where about 20,000-25,000 people are expected to be employed, a report by the Russian news agency Ria Novosti said.

Russia currently uses the Baikonur space center in the Central Asian Republic of Kazakhstan, which it has sit, has leased since the collapse of the Soviet Union, and the Plesetsk space center in northwest Russia as launch sites for space carrier rockets and ballistic missiles tests.

The first launch from the new space center is scheduled for 2015 and piloted spacecraft are intended to blast off from Vostochny in 2018.