YASNY, Orenburg Region. Dec 22 (Intefax-AVN) - The deployment site of the Strategic Missile Forces division in the Orenburg region may be used for launching payloads into space in the future, Colonel General Nikolai Solovtsov, Strategic Missile Forces Commander, told Interfax-Military News Agency on Wednesday.
"I am positive that in the future this deployment site in the Orenburg region will be used for launching satellite in addition to launching missiles," Solovtsov said, commenting on the launch of the RS-20 Voyevoda heavy ICBM, carried out by a combat crew of the division.
"This launch is of paramount importance, since the RS-20 ICBM will become a basis for developing carrier rockets, launching Russian and foreign satellites into space," Solovtsov said.
According to him, the issue will be settled in the near future.
"I hope that the problem will be solved in two to three years," he said.
Oleksandr Mashchenko, Deputy Director General/Designer General of the Ukrainian Yuzhnoye Design Bureau, who had attended the missile launch, told Interfax-AVN that the prospects of space launches from the deployment site in the Orenburg region were quite realistic.
"We are working jointly with the Russian side, as far as the commercial prospects of the RS-20 missile are concerned. I think that the project will be realized in the near future," Mashchenko said.