New Russian Cosmodrome - Vostochniy

Project Canada wrote:
I cant wait to see Vostochny up and running. is it 2018 when it will become fully operational?

There is no reason for them to wait two years to launch rockets if they have delivered one on site already.   I am quite
sure they will launch in 2016.  Various parts of the cosmodrome will take longer to complete and 2018 is likely the
"everything ready" date.

I tried to look this up using Google and had to swim through a flood of anti-Russian propaganda excrement.
Wikipedia uses the fringe propaganda rag The Moscow Times as some sort of verifiable information source.

Seriously, NATO numbskulls, how can any of you expect humans with functional brains to swallow your drivel?
For a project with such dramatic coverage of its "problems" it sure as hell is getting finished fast.   In case it
is not clear, NATO numbskulls, serious problems lead to project paralysis and terminal delays.   What you claim
are problems are routine issues experienced by any megaproject.   Especially in your benighted NATO itself.

Putin arrives in Amur region to inspect construction work at Vostochny spaceport

The President wants to see what has been done to catch up with the construction schedule, his press secretary says

BLAGOVESHCHENSK, October 14. /TASS/. Russian President Vladimir Putin has arrived in the Far Eastern Amur region, where he will inspect construction work at the Vostochny spaceport and will chair a session on its development.

President Putin wants to see what has been done to catch up with the construction schedule, president’s press secretary Dmitry Peskov said on Tuesday.

"It is a routine inspection trip," he said, adding that the Vostochny space center was Putin’s pet project and the president was personally controlling the construction.

"There were very serious problems, the construction lagged behind the schedule. Now the situation has been improved. And the president wants to see it by himself," the spokesman said.

After a visit to the construction site, Putin "will have a conference with the government members who supervise the construction and with the contractors to discuss issues linked with the construction works, preparations for the first launch, and, naturally, issues of social maintenance of those who take part in the construction works," Peskov said.

Besides, Putin will met with the director general of SIBUR company, Dmitry Konov, to discuss construction of a new gas processing plant in the Amur region. SIBUR is a Russian gas processing and petrochemicals company headquartered in Moscow.

First residents of Tsiolkovsky to move to their new homes in November

Today, about 2,000 people are needed to ensure the space center’s operation, said a deputy chief of the center Andrei Okhlopkov

MOSCOW, November 9. /TASS/. First residents of the city of Tsiolkovsky that is being built in the vicinity of the Vostochny space center also under construction in Russia’s Far Eastern Amur region will begin to settle in their new homes in November-early December 2015, Andrei Okhlopkov, a deputy chief of the center for operation of ground-based space infrastructure facilities, said on Monday.

"Stage one of the city construction project provides for accommodations for 6,000 people. Stage two is also meant for 6,000 people. In November-early December first residents - technical personnel of the Vostochy space center - will move to their new homes," he told the Ekho Moskvy radio station.

Today, about 2,000 people are needed to ensure the space center’s operation, he said, adding that the center’s overall area was about 100 square kilometers.

When asked whether it is planned to develop tourism at Vostochny, Okhlopkov said this issue is not on the current agenda. "I think it would be right to demonstrate construction and technical beauties. But as long as the construction is not over, it is wrong to invite tourists," he said.

"We will build an airdrome in cooperation with Gazprom. Apart from that, the city will have a hotel, a sports center, etc.," he said, adding that stage two of the project - the construction of an Angara space rocket complex - had been launched.

"The first Angara launch in from Vostochny is planned for 2021 in an unmanned modification. The first manned Angara launch is planned for 2023," Okhlopkov said.