Russia will begin to build a new space center in its far east in 2011, a government official said Monday, reported Xinhua.
The three-stage construction project for the new Vostochny station will be completed in 2018, said Army General Nikolai Abroskin, head of the Federal Service for the Production of Special Construction Work.
"In all, seven launch pads are to be built at the space center, including two for manned flights and two for space freighters," the RIA Novosti news agency quoted the official as saying.
Russia now uses two centers to launch carrier rockets and conduct ballistic missile tests: the Baikonur space center in Kazakhstan and the Plesetsk space center in northwest Russia.