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Moscow (Interfax) April 26, 2000 - Russia and Kazakhstan may work together on a project to create the Yamal space rocket because the Sodruzhestvo, or Commonwealth project to design a new launch vehicle based on the Zenit has yet to take shape, Russia's aerospace chief has said. Neither Kazakhstan, Russia nor Ukraine possess the sort of finances needed to deliver the Sodruzhestvo project, which is aimed at creating a heavy-duty rocket, Yuri Koptev, head of the Russian Aerospace Agency (Rosaviakosmos), told an April 18 press conference at the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. The Sodruzhestvo project was due to turn the Zenit into an environmentally friendly rocket equal in specification to the Proton rocket. Russia's Energiya space rocket corporation has estimated the project at $170 million, but Kazakhstan's own specialists say the cost could be nearer to $300 million. The Yamal project, though, would see the Progress design bureau from Samara update the existing Soyuz rocket. Koptev said this project would be feasible because it would be far less capital intensive. The capital, he said, could be raised "within the context of international cooperation." The Yamal project could use the idle launch pads at Baikonur that were built to send Energiya rockets into space. Alexander Svinarev, deputy director of NIIKhimmash, the Russian organization that operates the launch complex, told Interfax that it would cost at least 800 million rubles to get this back into working order. The complex launched its last Energiya rockets back in 1987.
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