Vice Premier tours facility where new rockets will be built

Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin has visited the plant where parts for the new generation space rocket will be manufactured.

Last month he announced the Angara-A5V would be built, assembled and tested in Siberia, with Omsk chosen as the location for almost all of the work.

On Wednesday he toured the Polyot factory in the city ahead of full production of the rocket starting in six years’ time.

The Angara-AV5 will be at the forefront of the new Russian era of Space exploration, and will be used in the first manned launch from the new Vostochny cosmodrome in 2020.

The Polyot plant is undergoing an extensive period of reconstruction, with the huge department where the rocket will be built almost ready. It is here that parts of the module will be produced before later being joined together, with it expected that 100 of them will be made each year.

During his tour, Mr Rogozin was shown some of the unique new technology that will go into manufacturing the rocket. It is thought about 20 billion roubles ($400million) will be invested in the Polyot factory by 2020.

Almost all of the parts for the Angara will be produced in Omsk, other than the engines and boosters.

According to officials the Angara-A5V will be capable of launching payloads of about 77,000lbs into orbit and will easily be able to take cosmonauts to the Moon, and will likely be involved in Mr Putin’s dream of building Russia’s new space station.

Its use is being heralded as a strategic move away from the old Soyuz technology first used in the 1960s.

The sprawling 551 sq km Vostochny complex, close to the Chinese border, will employ up to 25,000 people. Architects say the new community will be a “one-of-its-kinds scientific and tourist space town with a unique design and beautiful landscape”.

There will be three launch pads - one for the Soyuz and two for Angara rockets – and the first launch, for a Soyuz-2 carrier rocket, due in December.