MOSCOW. April 12 (Interfax-AVN) - Russia is not planning to abandon the Baikonur cosmodrome, Denis Pivnyuk, deputy director general of the Khrunichev Space Center in charge of international cooperation and information, told an online conference on Friday.
"We will work at the Baikonur in the future and are not planning to abandon it," Pivnyuk said. The center has spent over USD200m on strengthening and restoration of the cosmodrome infrastructure. After the restoration the cosmodrome meets global standards and ensures high class of technological work.
The Proton booster rocket being launched from the cosmodrome is one of the most reliable boosters in the world. It is the transport basis for the Russian state space program.
"We upgraded Proton to Proton-M, which also required major investments. As a result the country received a launch vehicle of new quality level which is capable to put up to 6t of payload in geotransitional orbit," Pivnyuk said.
He stressed that the first launch of the Proton booster rocket with the Briz-M acceleration unit took place in April last year.
"With the help of this tandem we will offer serious competition on the global market of space launches for at least 10 years," Pivnyuk added.
According to him, "piloted launches including those in the interests of the International Space Station might be effected only from the Baikonur cosmodrome.