Kazakhstan's initiative to transform Baikonur into an international space hub will not harm cooperation with Russia, the head of Roscosmos, Dmitry Bakanov, said, according to Interfax, as reported by infohub.kz.
"There is nothing bad about this initiative. We welcome any international projects in the space sector. Besides, it will increase demand for Russian rockets," Bakanov said in an interview with Yunashev Live.
Recall that Aidyn Aimbetov, chairman of the board of the Kazakh-Russian joint venture Baiterek, said Kazakhstan plans to open Baikonur to a larger number of foreign partners. This is expected to increase the number of space launches from the cosmodrome.
At the same time, Russia does not plan to stop working on the project. In July, Bakanov said the Russian Federation would continue to use three cosmodromes — Vostochny, Plesetsk and Baikonur.
According to him, Russia has also extended its Proton rocket launch program: the country still has nine such rockets at its disposal. In addition, a Soyuz-5 rocket has already been launched from Baikonur as part of the Baiterek project.
Earlier, Kursiv reported that Russia will pay Kazakhstan more than 55 billion tenge for the lease of Baikonur in 2027.