The need for an additional Russian launch pad arose from a presidential decree by the President of Russia, which emphasizes the need for complete independence of Russia in access to space - including manned launches that would eliminate the use of Baikonur
A senior official of the Russian government space agency Roscosmos presented at the International Astronautical Conference in Prague Russia's plans for building its new launch site for space, Vostochny, located in the Far East of Russia, and its construction began not long ago.
The need for an additional Russian launch pad arose from a presidential decree by the President of Russia, which emphasizes the need for complete independence of Russia in access to space - including manned launches. Today, Russia's manned launches are carried out from the Baikonur space base in Kazakhstan, formerly a Soviet republic of the Soviet Union. An agreement between the government of Russia and the government of Kazakhstan will allow Russia to use this base until 2050.
In the next three years, a billion dollars will be invested in the Vostochny base, and it is expected to be operational before 2018. In the base, infrastructure is being established to support the launch of Russia's new rocket, Rus M, developed by the Samara Corporation (which is also responsible for the production of satellite launchers and Soyuz-type spacecraft). When asked when the first manned launch from the new space base is expected, Roscosmos' vice president for international cooperation replied that the target is 2020. In his lecture, he explained the site selection process, which was one of five candidate sites, including the launch base known for military use and missile testing, Kapustin Yar.
The main considerations facing Roscosmos were the variety of routes to which it is possible to launch from the new space base, safety issues - areas where stages fall from the rocket, and political considerations - the desire to avoid flying the missiles over the sovereign territory of other countries. The President of Russia, in the order ordering the establishment of the launch base, states the national importance of populating the area on Russia's eastern border, improving the economy and developing regional infrastructure, including an airport, railroads, etc. By the way, the launches that will be carried out from the site are polar launches - towards the north as well as launches towards the east, in the south is China, while in the southeast are North Korea and Japan, which of course limits the possibilities of launching in these directions.
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To Uzi Becher (1) Chinese or not, it is impossible to hide a spaceship launch anyway
Manned - so why underestimate?
Apparently there is a crazy queue..
If it is about ego competition of this or that people and they don't know what and for what purpose they are living, this is indeed a problem.
If the Russians continue the Soviet rampage and sacrifice human lives without thinking twice just to win prestige (much like it was somewhere in the fifties-sixties) or then all space progress will be very great. And if the Chinese are just as crazy and the Indians are just as talented with big ambitions for conquering space - then all of these can set a very high bar for the USA, which puts safety above all else and probably spends most of its capital on it.
The Chinese will just put some poor astronauts on a spaceship and send them to Mars without telling anyone. Will survive - will survive. They will not survive - we will try again next year.