MOSCOW. Nov 30 (Interfax) - The general director of the Center for Operation of Space Ground-Based Infrastructure (TsENKI), in charge of the construction of Vostochny Cosmodrome, lost his job after failing to meet deadlines, head of Roscosmos Dmitry Rogozin said.
"Actually, I find it hard to part with people. But the space rocket industry is one that requires the toughest discipline, and if some boss has made promises to me, but fails to fulfill a strategically important task by the deadline they set themselves, then I have to part with them," Rogozin said on Facebook.
For too long Roscosmos was relaxed, having "fallen asleep on a bench, but now it has woken up and is trying to catch up with rivals who have gone ahead. That we'll manage to catch up is not just our hope, but a certainty, but this will only be possible when all responsible project managers keep their word to one another and to me," he said.
TsENKI is part of the Roscosmos state corporation. The enterprise runs Russian civilian cosmodromes Baikonur and Vostochny.
Earlier on Friday, Roscosmos said that TsENKI General Director Andrei Okhlopkov had been fired. The director of TsENKI's V.P. Barmin Research Institute for Launch Facilities, Ruslan Mikhamedzhanov, has been appointed acting general director of the enterprise.
In October, Okhlopkov and TsENKI chief engineer Vladimir Zhuk were reprimanded following a production meeting at Vostochny Cosmodrome. Additionally, the head of the cosmodrome's directorate, Yevgeny Rogoza, was dismissed following this meeting.
On November 25, Zhuk was arrested on suspicion of committing abuses during the construction of the cosmodrome. It emerged in October that Roman Bobkov, the director of the Vostochny space center, had been arrested for two months. He became a co-defendant in the criminal case against the chief inspector of the Defense Ministry's 119th division for state architectural and construction oversight, Dmitry Fomintsev. Both men have been charged with fraud during the commissioning of three water intake constructions at Vostochny Cosmodrome
Vostochny is Russia's newest spaceport. The first launch from it was conducted in 2016. A total of five launches of Soyuz carrier rockets have been performed during the entire period of Vostochny's operations. At present, the second stage facilities, enabling launches of rockets of the Angara family, are being built there.