GORKI, Moscow region. Jan 23 (Interfax) - The deadline for the construction of the Vostochny Cosmodrome has been pushed back from 2021 to 2023, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Yury Borisov said.
"The original deadline was 2021, but we shouldn't cherish illusions, so to speak - no one today is able to complete it in 2021. Certainly, the mess surrounding the choice of the principal contractor and the lagging when this work began have objectively led to the fact that today the adjusted deadline [should be] later than 2021, but not later than 2023," Borisov said following a meeting hosted by the prime minister on Wednesday.
"We can't go beyond 2023," he said.
The president has ordered that a launch pad for super heavy-lift launch vehicles be ready by 2023, Borisov said.
Also, a launch pad for the heavy-lift version of the Angara must be built as a backup for the one in Plesetsk, he said.
If construction is not completed by 2023, the timeline of R&D work on the rocket will be disrupted, Borisov said. "The missile will be created, but there will be nowhere to launch it from. This would be complete mismanagement," he said.
The first phase of the cosmodrome's construction has not been fully completed, Borisov said. "The situation is quite serious today, as the construction companies have virtually gone bankrupt, too many documents are in courts, contracts are being severed, money is being refunded, but all of this takes a lot of time," Borisov said.
It has been decided not to freeze construction but to continue to optimize it, he said.