EAST COSMODROME (Amur region), September 13Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un inspected the launch complex of the Soyuz-2 space rocket complex at the Vostochny cosmodrome.
The leaders of the two countries visited the installation and testing building and were given explanations about the technical characteristics of the launch vehicles. Putin noted that Russia, along with the Eastern and Northern Cosmodrome Plesetsk, continues to use together with its Kazakh friends and the Baikonur Cosmodrome.
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The North Korean leader was interested in the characteristics of the missiles, including engine power. He was told that the lifting capacity of the rocket to low orbits is 9 tons from Vostochny, 7.5 tons from the northern cosmodrome and 8 tons from Baikonur.
“It’s even more efficient here than from Baikonur,» Putin noted.
The leader of the DPRK is visiting Russia for the first time since 2019; he arrived in the Russian Federation on his famous armored train. Kim Jong-un is accompanied on the trip by the head of the DPRK Foreign Ministry, Choi Song-hui, the head of the military administration department of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party, Park Chong-chon, and the deputy head of the central military committee, Lee Byung-chol.
As indicated in the materials for the visit to Vostochny, the launch complex » Soyuz» is designed to receive launch vehicles of the Soyuz-2 family, conduct pre-launch preparation and launch, final operations after launch, and carry out work in the event of a failed launch. Its area is about 45 thousand square meters.
The materials note that the command post building can withstand the impact of falling composite stages of the launch vehicle, and the walls and ceiling almost a meter thick can protect personnel from an accident. Refueling of launch vehicle tanks takes place from stationary units of oxygen, nitrogen, kerosene, and naphthyl. The decision to install the filling hoses underground was made for safety reasons, as indicated in the reference materials.