MOSCOW. Aug 23 (Interfax-AVN) - Employment of the Svobodny cosmodrome in the Amur region will not threaten environment of the region, experts of the Machine Building Research and Production Association told Interfax-Military News Agency on Friday.
Assistant to the association's director general Igor Puchkov said that amyl and heptyl substances used in the fuel of Strela carrier rockets were the principal agents affecting the environment, yet he added that components of other types of fuel have a worse effect.
The Strela carrier rocket was developed by the association on the basis of the RS-18 intercontinental ballistic missile that is now being decommissioned. Puchkov said that the R-18 rocket was noted for its operational reliability; 151 launches out of the total number of 154 launches were successful ones. The control system now employed on the Strela carrier rocket was used to perform 87 launches.
The Svobodny cosmodorme was set up in the Amur region on the site of a former missile division; the project provided for employment of the ground-based infrastructure used to launch RS-10 intercontinental ballistic missiles developed by the Machine- Building Association.
Environmental safety of the Strela rocket is based on experience that has been gained by the association for many years. The carrier rocket is made up with two booster stages of the RS-18 intercontinental ballistic missiles that underwent State ecological analysis in 1999.
Puchkov added that first deputy director general of the association Pyotr Nosatenko, First Deputy Commander of the Russian Space Troops Lieutenant General Viktor Remishevsky and commander of the cosmodrome Colonel Vladimir Tyurin met with representatives of the local administration and residents of the town of Blagoveshchensk earlier this week and provided them with data on the ecological safety of launches from the Svobodny cosmodrome.