ASTANA. Jan 9 (Interfax-AVN) - Russia will continue renting the Baikonur cosmodrome from Kazakhstan until 2050 under an agreement signed on Friday.
The accord, which extends a 20-year deal agreed in 1994, was signed in Astana by Russian President Vladimir Putin and Kazakh leader Nursultan Nazarbayev. It keeps the rent at today's level of USD115m a year, which was set in 1999.
To make Baikonur more environmentally secure, the two countries have decided to use a new model of rocket at the cosmodrome. Based on the Russian Angara, the new space vehicle, to be called Baiterek, will be tested at the Plesetsk cosmodrome in Russia.