Launch pad No. 1 of the Baikonur Cosmodrome is planned to be decommissioned this year. This was stated by the head of Roscosmos Dmitry Rogozin in an interview with the Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper.
Site No. 1 at Baikonur is also called the Gagarin Start. It was from here that on April 12, 1961, the Vostok-1 spacecraft was launched, which for the first time in the world delivered a man to low Earth orbit: pilot-cosmonaut Yuri Alekseevich Gagarin was on board.
βWe are gradually decommissioning the launch pads [at the Baikonur Cosmodrome] one by one. In 2019, the legendary Gagarin start will be mothballed,β said Mr. Rogozin.
The head of Roscosmos said that site No. 1 at Baikonur is used to launch Soyuz FG rockets. However, the use of this carrier will soon cease, in connection with which the Gagarin Start will be frozen. About plans to preserve the site became known almost a year ago.
Dmitry Rogozin also added that, for the time being, launches of Russian manned spacecraft will be carried out from Baikonur, despite the active development of the Russian Vostochny cosmodrome.
βThe launch pad on Vostochny is a wonderful, excellent technical complex, it is very convenient to work there, it is the most modern spaceport in the world, but it is not suitable for manned launches,β said the head of Roscosmos.
Source: 3dnews.ru