Moscow---Designed to showcase a revamped space industry and divert attention from recent failures, Russia's multi-billion-dollar project to build its own space launch pad to take over from Soviet-era Baikonur has been mired in corruption scandals.
Hailed by President Vladimir Putin as the country's biggest construction project, it has an estimated budget of 300 billion rubles ($5.8 billion, 5.3 billion euros).
The cosmodrome started going up in the remote far eastern Amur region in 2012.
Since then, 10,000 workers have toiled to build 115 kilometres (71 miles) of roads in this immense but scarcely populated region, as well as 125 kilometres of railways and a town with housing for 25,000 people.
But in the same period, Russia has opened dozens of probes into embezzlement of funds, with Moscow forced to top up the budget and even deploy student labour to help complete the strategically vital project on schedule by December.
The agency in charge of the project, Spetsstroi, is a state organisation overseen by the defence ministry and ultimately by Putin. It builds roads and installations for defence and state security needs.
"The construction was assigned to Spetsstroi Russia without any competition and it proved unable to organise the work," said Sergei Gorbunov, a former spokesman for Russia's space agency.
The new Vostochny, or Eastern, cosmodrome is central to Russia's dream of reviving the glories of the Soviet-era space programme, now marred by more than two decades of underfunding and a series of recent high-profile failures.
Vostochny's prime advantage is its location inside Russia. That means Moscow will no longer be dependent on the Baikonur launchpad in Kazakhstan, which since the breakup of the Soviet Union Moscow has been forced to rent out at a cost of $115 million a year.
Baikonur is used for manned flights to the International Space Station, now monopolised by Russia after the mothballing of US shuttles.
Russia has an existing military launch base Plesetsk in the far north, which is used for satellite launches and testing missiles. The new cosmodrome Vostochny, like Baikonur, is closer to the equator which makes launches more energy-efficient and hence cheaper.
The new cosmodrome is 700 square kilometres (270 square miles) in area, just a tenth of the size of Baikonur.
It will need to prove it is cost-effective for international customers wanting to launch commercial satellites, a sideline that earns Russia millions of dollars annually.
Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin, who oversees the space sector, has warned the country risked losing its status as a leader in space unless it manages to cut its costs.
AFP
