credit Federal Space Agency / caption: Russian Federation’s deputy prime minister Sergei Ivanov speaks
To date I have only read about a new unnamed human rated launcher operating from the new Russian spaceport in Vostochny. But according to this report on Russia’s Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos) website the Russian Federation’s deputy prime minister Sergei Ivanov said in a speech at Roscosmos’ annual board meeting that, “[the] Vostochny project [has] started. The first spacecraft or ISS cargo supply spaceship is to fly from this spaceport in 2015; human space vehicle launch is to occur in 2018”Cargo spaceship from Vostochny in 2015? I’ve been wandering around the forums of Novosti Kosmonautiki care of Google translation but couldn’t find anything to explain it, sometimes they do
I guess it just means they will recreate the Khrunichev Space Center Proton rocket’s launch pads at Baikonur at Vostochny, another example of how the Russians are getting out of Kazahkstan as fast as they can. I hadn’t heard that that was going to happen, the Proton move, hadn’t asked before either but come the Paris air show this year I’ll arm myself with plenty of questions about it
As for “human space vehicle launch” launching in 2018 that seems a little late. The “human space vehicle launch” is an obvious reference to the Energia Soyuz follow-on, the Advanced Crew Transportation System (ACTS), and a timeframe of 2018 is odd as Roscosmos head Anatoly Perminov has already given a 2016 launch date for ACTS
The big question for me is what rocket for ACTS?
