Nine years ago, on April 28, 2016, the Soyuz-2.1a rocket with three scientific satellites on board successfully launched from the new Russian Vostochny Cosmodrome. It has been exactly 9 years since the first launch.
The history of the cosmodrome began back in 1996, when the construction of the Svobodny Cosmodrome began in the vicinity of the village of Uglegorsk (now the city of Tsiolkovsky). However, due to insufficient workload, the project was curtailed in 2007. In its place, just a few kilometers away, the foundation was laid for a new cosmodrome — Vostochny.
Today, two launch pads operate at the cosmodrome. One is designed for the Soyuz family of rockets, the other for the promising Angara carriers. Currently, only automatic spacecraft are launched from the Amur land, but there are plans to launch manned ships.
The Vostochny Cosmodrome became the first civilian cosmodrome in Russia, built from scratch in modern history. Its location in the Amur Region allows optimizing launch trajectories and saving fuel when launching spacecraft into orbit.
Read more on the topic:
A Russian super-heavy rocket for the Moon and Mars will fly from the Vostochny Cosmodrome
Construction of a complex for super-heavy rockets will begin at the Vostochny Cosmodrome in 2025
The "package" of the Angara-A5 rocket was assembled at the Vostochny Cosmodrome