MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 13th November, 2019) Russia's new Soyuz carrier rockets, the Soyuz-5 and Soyuz-6 medium-lift rockets, are expected to be used for 40 years, up until 2062, Askar Zhumagaliyev, Kazakhstan's Minister of Digital Development, Innovation and Aerospace Industry said in a presentation, a copy of which was obtained by Sputnik.
The document says that Soyuz-5 launches from the Baikonur spaceport in Kazakhstan will begin in 2023, while the Soyuz-6 carriers will start to be launched in 2025.
According to the current agreement between Russia and Kazakhstan, Russia's current lease of Baikonur will expire in 2050.
Head of Russian space agency Roscosmos Dmitry Rogozin said last month that Kazakhstan would start modernizing the Baikonur Cosmodrome next year to ensure the successful launches of Soyuz-5 and Soyuz-6 carrier rockets.
Since the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) suspended its Space Shuttle program in 2011, the United States has depended on Russia's Soyuz spacecraft to carry astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS).
