Roscosmos does not plan to abandon the lease of the Baikonur Cosmodrome from Kazakhstan. The Russian side has big plans for this site, said the head of the state corporation, Dmitry Bakanov.
We have three cosmodromes: the national Vostochny, the military Plesetsk, and Baikonur. We work with all three; there are no plans to curtail any of them.
Bakanov emphasized that Russia and Kazakhstan have "good development prospects." In particular, Proton-M rocket launches are planned, and the Baiterek project is also being implemented, concluded the head of Roscosmos.
In April 2026, Denis Deniskin, General Director of the Khrunichev Center, stated that Russia and Kazakhstan, during intergovernmental negotiations, agreed to launch 9 Proton-M rockets. According to him, Astana is interested in maintaining Baikonur's infrastructure at a high level, and Moscow needs to use all heavy-class launch vehicles.
The parties are also developing the Baiterek project – a separate space rocket complex at Baikonur. It was created by modernizing the ground infrastructure of sites 42 and 45 of the cosmodrome. On April 30, 2026, the first test launch of the Soyuz-5 launch vehicle (lead developer – RKK Energia) took place at Baikonur. The payload will be sent on the new Soyuz in 2028.
Russia's lease of Baikonur is valid until 2050. The cost of using the infrastructure is 115 million USD.
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