MOSCOW. June 29 (Interfax) - Roscosmos CEO Dmitry Rogozin and Kazakh Prime Minister Askar Mamin have reviewed key issues in the way of launching the Baiterek space complex (Nazarbayev Start), which is under construction at the Baikonur Cosmodrome, Roscosmos said on Friday.
"Kazakh Prime Minister Askar Mamin received Roscosmos CEO and Russian presidential special representative Dmitry Rogozin. Key issues in the way of launching the joint project Baiterek envisioning the construction of the Soyuz-5 launch pad at Baikonur have been resolved," Roscosmos wrote on Twitter.
Baiterek is a Russian-Kazakh space rocket complex that is now under construction in Baikonur, from which Soyuz-5 rockets are expected to be launched. In September 2019, Russian President Vladimir Putin suggested naming the complex after Kazakhstan's first President Nursultan Nazarbayev.
The first launch of the Soyuz-5 launch vehicle is expected to take place at Baiterek in late 2022, the aerospace committee of the Kazakh Digital Development, Innovations and Aerospace Industry Ministry told Interfax on August 21, 2019
The head developer of the launch vehicle Soyuz-5, which has recently been called Irtysh, is Energia Rocket and Space Corporation. The development unmanned launched of the spacecraft are scheduled for 2022-2023.
In the future, it is expected to be used for taking to the near-earth orbit the reusable spacecraft that has until recently been called Federatsiya. Its manned launch and docking with the ISS are planned for 2024, but it will not be used for taking crews to the International Space Station later on.