OREANDA-NEWS. April 6, 2011. Russia’s new spaceport Vostochny in the Amur region will be ready for the first launch by 2015, Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos) Chief Anatoly Perminov said.

“We need Baikonur very much, but we should also develop Vostochny. By that time [2015], the Rus-M middle-class carrier rocket with increased lifting capacity will be ready too,” he said on Monday, April 4.

“The launch of the first manned mission to the International Space Station from Vostochny is scheduled for 2018. This is a number one task,” Perminov said.

Speaking of flights to the ISS, he did not rule out that five, not four, Soyuz ships would be launched to the stations every 2-3 years.