MOSCOW. Oct 8 (Interfax) - Flight tests at the Kazakh-Russian Baiterek launch site (Nazarbayev Start) at the Baikonur Cosmodrome initially scheduled for 2022 have been postponed by a year, according to a protocol amending the two countries' Baiterek construction treaty.
The document was published on the Internet portal for legal information on Thursday.
"The parties shall ensure the start of flight tests with a medium-lift launch vehicle at the Baiterek launch site in 2023," the document says.
At least two launches of Soyuz-5 rockets are expected to be take place from the Baiterek compound per year over the period from 2025 to 2036, according to the document. Russia will also carry out at least three test launches of Soyuz-5 rockets before 2025.
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 named Irtysh, is Energia Rocket and Space Corporation. The trial unmanned launches of the spacecraft are scheduled for 2022-2023.
In the future, it will be used for taking the reusable spacecraft that was until recently called Federatsiya to the low-earth orbit. Its crewed 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.