ASTANA. Dec 3 (Interfax-AVN) - Proton launches from the Baikonur Space Center may end in 2025, Kazakh National Space Agency (Kazcosmos) Deputy Chairman Meirbek Moldabekov said.
"We believe that Proton missions may continue until 2025," he told a press briefing at the President's Central Communications Service in Astana on Tuesday.
Kazakhstan has signed an interstate agreement with Russia on the gradual reduction of the number of Proton launches, Moldabekov said.
"Yet we should not be too hasty. Proton is the Space Port's workhorse, and the Space Port will be useless if we shut down the operation of Protons. That will also cause a very large problem in our relations with Russia and deal a serious blow to Russian cosmonautics. That will have an effect on us, too. So, this way is not acceptable, and the sides are unlikely to follow it," the Kazcosmos deputy head said.
There is another path to follow - "the eventual development of a new launch vehicle to undertake future missions," he said.
"This is what the Baiterek launch site has been planned for. But we can modernize the Zenit LV as a substitute for the Proton only by 2018. This does not mean, however, that Protons will be banned in 2018," Moldabekov said.
Russia rents the Baikonur Space Port from Kazakhstan for the period until 2050. The annual rent fee stands at $115 million.
The Proton-M heavy launch vehicle was designed for the delivery of satellites and automatic spacecraft to a near-Earth orbit and outer space. It runs on toxic heptyl (unsymmetrical dimethylhydrazine) and nitric oxide, for which the launch vehicle is criticized by environmentalists and the authorities of Kazakhstan.