Kazakhstan took up Baikonur. And what about Russia?

Almost 15 years ago, an agreement was signed between Kazakhstan and Russia, which included the construction of a new launch pad to launch promising launch vehicles. However, due to some uncertainties, the implementation of the project was constantly delayed. As a result, 8 years later, Russia began the construction of its own Vostochny spaceport, which caused a slight panic in Astana.

The leadership of Kazakhstan, fearing the closure of the cosmodrome, turned to Ukraine with a proposal to use the Baikonur launch complexes to launch Zenit-type launch vehicles, which were produced jointly with Russia. But after 2014, it became clear that ambitious plans were not destined to come true: the cooperation of Moscow and Kiev in the space field was curtailed, and the release of the Zeniths was stopped.



Nevertheless, the project for the construction of a new launch pad in Baikonur remained alive. Moscow and Astana resumed negotiations and decided to launch new Soyuz-5 missiles from a specially designed complex. At the same time, Kazakhstan itself intends to directly participate in the implementation of the project.