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One of the many problems the Russian government faced upon the collapse of the Soviet Union was access to space launch facilities. Baikonur Cosmodrome, the largest Soviet space center, was in the newly-independent Kazakhstan. During 1991-1993, negotiations over the status of the facility were not easy. Russia turned to Plesetsk, as its "heartland" space center, however its geographical location limited payloads and the range of orbits accessible from the site. Besides, Plesetsk has never had launch pads for the heavy Proton launcher, the backbone of Russian space commerce. Given the unclear political and economic status of Baikonur, and the technical limitations of Plesetsk, Russian authorities found it necessary to consider a backup site, which would guarantee the nation's access to space in the future. In 1993, three potential sites emerged, all in the Russian Far East, the only region which could offer a latitude comparable to Baikonur's southern location. Eventually, coastal Sovetskaya Gavan and the town of Khorol, some 150 kilometers from Vladivostok were dropped in favor of Svobodny 18, a former strategic missile base. It was located 120 kilometers north of Blagoveshensk and was shut down, as a result of the START-2 agreement on strategic arms limitations. The base was originally built in 1968 and shut down in late 1993. The residential area of the facility reportedly provided housing to 5,000 people. Although the division of the Strategic Rocket Forces stationed in Svobodny 18 had been disbanded, the town still had a population of 6,000 and all the basic infrastructure for its new role. Five or six existing launch silos could reportedly be easily modified for the Rockot launch-vehicle based on the UR-100 ballistic missile. When these plans became known, few took them seriously. The collapsing state economy left little chance to finance such a project. Many observers saw the idea as a bargaining chip at the negotiation table with Kazakhstan. On November 30, 1993, the Ministry of Defense officially formed the "Main Center for Testing and Application of Space Assets" in place of the deactivated base at Svobodny. The plans called for the restoration of as many as five launch silos for UR-100-type missiles, which could be used for Rockot and Strela launchers. Both space boosters derive from the UR-100NU ICBM, previously deployed at the base in Svobodny. In a more remote future, a launch complex for the next generation Angara rocket could be built at the site. The organizations, which were previously employed in the construction of the Baikal-Amur Railroad, BAM, could potentially participate in the development at Svobodny. Even with adequate funds, official sources said that the development of the project to its full capacity could take 10 - 13 years. (73) There were reports in the Russian press, that the idea about Svobodny had gotten a cool reception at the Russian space agency. The civilian organization believed that scarce resources would be better spent by supporting existing facilities, while the military argued that investment in Svobodny could help them employ retired military personnel. As of 2007, the Russian press estimated the population of the "cosmodrome" at around 4,000 people. Postings made by local residents on a regional web forum testified that the living conditions in the closed town of Uglegorsk (essentially a residential area of the missile base) were generally good and even during the post-Soviet period, there was little crime and parents would not afraid for the children to be outside alone. Finally, on March 1, 1996, President Boris Yeltsin signed a document declaring Svobodny a "Cosmodrome." During 2000, NPO Mashinostroenia, was still at the initial stage with its plans to convert the launch silos in Svobodny for its Strela booster. The company representatives said that the first Strela launch can take place as early as 2001, however, the initial test missions would fly from Baikonur, rather than Svobodny. The previously envisioned construction of the two-pad complex for the prospective Angara launcher had also remained at a virtual standstill during the end of 1990s due to lack of funds. The end of the launch site In September 2005, the Russian press quoted space agency officials as saying that due to lack of funds the launch facility at Svobodny would shut down upon completion of already scheduled missions. However, a representative of the Russian president in the Far East, Kamil Itskhakov, who visited the site for the launch of the EROS-B1 satellite in April 2006, promised to lobby for the continuation of space launches at the site. The governor of the Amur Region, Leonid Korotkov was also quoted as saying that payments from the Russian military for the environmental cleanup in the aftermath of launches were significantly increased from the original 75 thousand rubles. On January 22, 2007, the head of the Russian space forces, General Vladimir Popovkin confirmed that the launch facility in Svobodny would be mothballed. He added that a military unit and a ground measurement station would remain at the site, while "only time would tell about anything else." Only about 300 military personnel would be required to maintain the ground control station and associated facilities, according to the Russian press. In February 2007, a presidential decree formalized the closure of the launch facility in Svobodny. According to the Russian press, in the previous three years, government investments in Svobodny reached 350 million rubles. On June 6, 2007, a group of Russian military officials led by newly appointed Defense Minister Anatoly Serdukov visited Svobodny to discuss the fate of the site with the presidential envoy to the Far East Region, Kamil Itskhakov, who had long lobbied for keeping the facility in service. New launch site in the Far East? The fate of Svobodny got another chance for a reversal of fortune on July 31, 2007, when a federal interagency commission, which was led by the head of the Russian space agency Anatoly Perminov and included 24 to 90 people, according to different reports, visited the town of Uglegorsk. The official purpose of the group was to search for a new potential far-eastern launch site. (The head of the Russian space agency, Anatoly Perminov first mentioned the possibility of building a new launch site in Russia during his visit to Kourou at the end of February 2007.) Members of the commission visited different facilities in Svobodny and flew downrange in a helicopter. Once again, Svobodny was competing with the Port of Vanino near Sovetskaya Gavan in the Khabarovsk Region. At the time, Russian media promised a presidential decree on the creation of the new launch site by the end of August 2007. All indications were that the commission favored an area between Sovetskaya Gavan and Vanino, while Uglegorsk was apparently included in the list of closed cities to be demilitarized and open to general access by the public and for the civilian development. The same commission visited Vanino on Aug. 1, 2007. According to Russian media, the new launch site would include a residential area with a population of 18,000 people. During the MAKS-2007 air and space show in Moscow in August 2007, the head of Russian space agency, Anatoly Perminov, reiterated that Russia would need a new space launch site in the future, particularly for prospective manned systems, however he stressed that the issue of the location of the new launch site remained open at the time. During his visit to the Russian Far East at the end of September 2007, the first vice prime-minister, Sergei Ivanov, confirmed once more, his government's decision to shut down launch operations in Svobodny, while reiterating intentions to find a new launch site in the region. Ivanov added that the new launch site in the Russian Far East would be available for manned launches among other missions. According to Ivanov, the government's strategic policy of bringing high-tech industries to the Russian Far East gave the region an advantage over other places in the selection process. Another twist to the story of the Far-eastern launch site was added in November 2007, when the head of Roskosmos Anatoly Perminov essentially ruled out Vanino from the list of potential locations, citing the area as earthquake-prone. He promised that the final selection would be made in January 2008, adding that the Amur Region (Amurskaya Oblast) was now favored. The Amur Region also boasted on average 310 clear days a year, relatively dry climate and lack of strong winds. According to Perminov, the new facility would only be necessary after 2020, upon conclusion of the Russian involvement in the International Space Station project, which is dependent on the launch site in Baikonur. Svobodny is dead, long live Vostochny On Nov. 21, 2007, official Russian media, citing Sergei Ivanov, the first vice-chairman of the Russian government, announced that on Nov. 6, 2007, President Putin had signed a decree on the creation of the Vostochny ("Eastern") launch site in the Amur Region. As of end of 2007 - beginning of 2008, the development schedule for the site included following stages:
If ever built, the new launch site would mark a historic shift of the nation's manned space program from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan to Russian territory. From the moment Soviet Union disintegrated in December 1991, Russian officials have promised to abandon Baikonur and shift operations to the existing launch site in Plesetsk and to a newly built facility in Svobodny. However, the severe financial crisis of the 1990s stalled all these plans. More than a decade later, record-high oil prices have reinvigorated Moscow's ambitions in space and made new large-scale federal projects more realistic. The creation of a new launch site aims to end Russian dependency on Kazakhstan, whose government charges multi-million-dollar annual fees for the rent of Baikonur. In addition, with new investments in the Russian Far East, the Kremlin hopes to tighten its grip on this remote region of the country, which in the last decade has seen considerable economic influence from China and Japan. Along with the construction of the new launch site, the Russian government has promised to relocate high-tech enterprises, supporting the manned space program into the region. Vostochny development According to the local newspaper, Amurskaya Pravda, the development of the new site would dramatically increase employment in the towns of Uglegorsk, Svobodny and others. (As of the beginning of 2008, the exact location of the Vostochny's main facilities was unclear and their boundaries were not expected to be determined until 2009.) Preliminary development of the project, geodesic surveillance and related work was expected to take more than a year. The construction would reportedly employ around 25,000 people. According to preliminary data, the development cost would reach 180 billion rubles, the newspaper said. In January 2008, Evgeny Stepanenko, the deputy head of Uglegorsk Area told Amurskaya Pravda that even if all existing residential infrastructure of the town, including military barracks and hostels were used to its full capacity, it could accommodate no more than 12,000, in addition to the current population of 5,213. As a result, large-scale construction of residential buildings, including three new city districts housing as many as 25,000 each, was scheduled to commence during 2009. The local government also promised to scrap Uglegorsk's status as "Closed Territorial Entity" or ZATO, and even rename the place into something more appropriate for its role. (Uglegorsk, meaning "coal mountain" apparently owed its name to the Soviet efforts to cover-up the presence of a missile base at the site, since no coal is found in the area.) The residential construction would be followed be breaking ground for the actual technical infrastructure of the launch site in the second half of 2009. An airfield would be reportedly the very first facility to be built in Vostochny. Practical steps On Jan. 15, 2008, Russian media announced that the governor of the Amur Region, Nikolai Kolesov, had appointed Nikolai Sevastyanov as deputy chairman of the region's government. It is likely, Kolesov discussed this appointment during a meeting in Moscow with the management of Roskosmos on Dec. 28, 2007. Only a few months earlier, the Russian space agency forced out Sevastyanov from the prestigious post of head of RKK Energia, the prime developer of Russian manned spacecraft. In his new capacity, Sevastyanov would reportedly lead all activities related to the development of the new launch site in the remote Far East. One witty comment on a Russian web forum compared Sevastyanov's new assignment with an appointment as ambassador to Mongolia -- a Soviet equivalent of honorary exile. By the time of his appointment, Sevastyanov had already paid a two-day visit in Uglegorsk, touring all major facilities at the site. Concurrently with Sevastyanov's appointment, Governor Kolesov signed a decree creating a scientific and production committee on the construction of Vostochny. The new body would include representatives of the rocket industry and would be responsible for coordinating all aspects of the project. According to the official Interfax news agency, during a meeting of the Russian president with his cabinet on Jan. 21, 2008, vice-chairman of the government, Sergei Ivanov, said that Roskosmos would initiate the development of Vostochny during 2008. The issue was expected to be discussed at the meeting of Roskosmos' council on Jan. 23, which Ivanov would personally chair. Representatives of the Amur Region, including vice-governor Viktor Martsenko, the head of Uglegorsk area Vladimir Tokarev and Nikolai Sevastyanov, a newly appointed deputy to the Amur governor, were all expected to attend. On Feb. 11-14, 2008, a combined team of Roskosmos, rocket industry representatives and local officials toured the potential locations of the future center, in the effort to clarify list of existing facilities at Svobodny, which could be re-used for the new role. Two weeks later, on February 27, Roskosmos leadership held a meeting considering the status of the project. The agency announced that a technical assignment for the general design of the new center was issued to TsNIIMash research institute. At the time, the Scientific-Technical Council of Roskosmos was expected to review the design in June-July 2008. Roskosmos also announced a formation of working groups within the industry assigned to deal with various aspects of the project. The overall responsibility for the construction of the new site was expected to be delegated to Spetstroi, a key contractor on major development projects of the Ministry of Defense. On March 28 and 29, 2008, management at Roskosmos and Spetstroi held back-to-back management meetings on the issue of Vostochny. Head of Spetstroi, General Nikolai Abroskin said that his organization had a 10-billion-ruble increase in its 2008 budget, even though at the time, these money were not allocated specifically for Vostochny, as the current three-year budget was approved by Duma (parliament), before the decision on Vostochny was made. Nevertheless, Spetstroi joined a working group on the development of the facility. On April 11, the eve of Cosmonautics Day, the outgoing Russian president Vladimir Putin chaired a meeting of his Security Council (known in Russian as Sovet Bezopasnosti), with the official goal of considering various aspects of the Russian space program until 2020. According to Anatoly Perminov, the head of the Russian space agency, although Russia had committed to stay in Baikonur until its current agreement with Kazakhstan would expire in 2050, the Security Council established the year 2015 as a "solid date" of the first launch from the new launch site in Vostochny. (Previous statements quoted 2016 as the date of the first launch from the site.) In the wake of the meeting, the Kremlin press service also quoted President Putin requesting additional funds for the current federal budget, which would allow immediate development in Vostochny. Potential roles for the new launch site From the outset, the government advertised Vostochny as a civilian facility with its focus on the manned space program, particularly on Russian plans for lunar expeditions. Military launches of reconnaissance satellites, heading to high-inclination and polar orbits, would continue originating from Plesetsk. Vostochny's geographic location (near 51 degrees North latitude) ensured that rockets would be capable of lifting almost the same amount of payload, as they could carry from Baikonur. As a result, the future site could provide access to the International Space Station, (if it is still in orbit at the time), and, possibly, support missions to the Moon. Therefore, it was assumed that new-generation rockets, such as Soyuz-2-3, Soyuz-3, or an entirely new family of launchers would be based in Vostochny. At the same time, Vostochny could be a base for commercial missions, targeting both low and high-inclination orbits. Just few weeks after the Russian government had announced its intention to build Vostochny, regional media reported that South Korea would be interested in the development of the site. According to Amur-Info, Korean officials attending the meeting of the Russian-Korean commission on economic and technology cooperation in Vladivostok in December 2007 said that their country would support the project, which could eventually result in launches of Korean satellites from the site. Initially, it was unclear, if military launches heading to equatorial or low-inclination orbits would be also relocated to Vostochny. Traditionally, the Baikonur-based Proton rocket has delivered military communications and early-warning satellites, which required equatorial orbits. However, the new-generation Angara rocket would be seriously impaired in terms of its payload, if it had to reach equatorial orbit from Plesetsk, due to its high-latitude location. Thus, a launch pad for Angara in Vostochny could become attractive for both commercial and military users. Additional roles To fulfill the government idea of accompanying the construction in Vostochny with the overall shift of space industry to the Far East, Nikolai Sevastyanov, a newly appointed deputy governor of the region, fielded the idea of opening a design bureau in Uglegorsk specialized in the development of small satellites. Such satellites could serve as potential payloads for the Start booster, whose operations had been based in Svobodny/Uglegorsk region since mid-1990s. The new bureau could be stuffed by local specialists, who would be trained by leading educational institutions in Russia, Sevastyanov told the Amurskaya Pravda in January 2008. In addition, Moscow Aviation Institute, MAI, a leading supplier of graduates to the Russian space industry, was reportedly ready to open its branch in the Amur Region. Complete list of orbital launch attempts from Svobodny: 1997 March 4: In the first launch from the site, a Start-1 mobile and lightweight booster converted from the Topol ICBM, delivered the Zeya experimental satellite into orbit. 1997 Dec. 24: A Start-1 launched the EarlyBird imaging satellite for the US company Earth Watch, Inc. 2000 Dec. 5: A Start-1 booster successfully placed the Israeli-built EROS-A1 commercial imaging satellite into sun-synchronous orbit. 2001 Feb. 20, 11:48:27 Moscow Time: A Start-1 booster launched the Odin research satellite. 2006 April 25, 20:46 Moscow Summer Time (16:46 GMT): (planned time: 20:47:16) A converted ballistic missile delivered an Israeli remote-sensing satellite, after a blastoff from a launch site in the Russian Far East. The Start-1 launch vehicle, carrying the EROS-B1 satellite, blasted off from a mobile launcher deployed at Svobodny. The payload entered a nominal 508-kilometer circular polar orbit with an inclination 97.3 degrees toward the Equator approximately 16 minutes after the launch. The solar panels of the satellite were successfully deployed some 30 seconds later. The mission of the EROS-B1 received more attention from the media than that of its predecessor, in light of recent threats to Israel from the Iranian government. The world press has emphasized that the Israeli military, as one of the major customers of satellite's data, could use it to monitor Iran's military activities, including its nuclear and missile programs. The launch was delayed from the fourth quarter of 2005 and March 21, 2005. Page author: Anatoly Zak; Last update: April 30, 2008 Page editor: Alain Chabot; Last edit: February 6, 2008 Copyright © 2008 RussianSpaceWeb.com |
PICTURE GALLERY
The rollout of the Start-1 mobile launcher in Svobodny. Credit: MIT
During 2007, Russian government considered an option of building a new launch site between towns of Vanino and Sovetskaya Gavan on the coastal Far East. Click to enlarge. Copyright © 2007 Anatoly Zak
Launch trajectories and first stage drop zones, which were considered for the proposed Vostochny space center. Click to enlarge. Copyright © 2007 Anatoly Zak |
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