The Kazakhstani Government has ratified a 2004 agreement to extend Russia’s use of its Baikonur cosmodrome to 2050.
Kazcosmos head Talgat Musabayev was quoted by RIA Novosti as saying that Russia had indicated that it would suspend other agreements and work on the Baiterek launch facilities at Baikonur because Kazakhstan had still not ratified the agreement.
Russia uses the launch facilities at Baikonur for a major portion of its space launches and is the country’s main launch facility under an agreement signed in 1994.
The cosmodrome has 15 launch pads for launching both manned and unmanned space vehicles and supports several generations of Russian spacecraft including the Soyuz, Proton, Tsyklon, Dnepr, Zenit and Buran.
Russia pays an estimated $115m for the use of the space centre annually and a yearly $50m for its maintenance, according to RIA Novosti.
Russia and Kazakhstan are building the Baiterek cosmodrome, a new space launch facility at Baikonur, to launch Angara carrier rockets with payload capacity of 26t into low Earth orbits.
