Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the excursion facility was closed for almost two years
BLAGOVESHCHENSK, February 21. /tass/. The first tourists in 2022 visited the Vostochny cosmodrome, which is located in the Amur region. Due to the pandemic, the facility for excursions has been closed for almost two years, according to the website of the Center for the Operation of Ground-based Space Infrastructure (CENKI) on Monday.
"The Vostochny Cosmodrome received the first tourists after the lifting of restrictions imposed in 2020 related to the spread of COVID-19. A group of Amur schoolchildren from the Romnensky district [Amur Region] came to the cosmodrome to see with their own eyes the place where launch vehicles are assembled and from where they launch into space," the message says.
It is noted that the visit was possible only if epidemiological requirements were met: there were up to 20 people in the group, a mask regime and the presence of negative PCR test results.
Vostochny Cosmodrome is one of the most popular requests to visit industrial facilities in the Amur region. The only operating civilian cosmodrome in Russia in pre-pandemic times received from 460 to 2 thousand tourists a year. The majority of tourists on Vostochny are schoolchildren and students, 20% of the total number are adults. Mostly residents of the Far Eastern Federal District come to the cosmodrome. As previously reported by TASS in Roscosmos, the company is interested in conducting career guidance excursions for students and young professionals in order to increase interest in working at Roscosmos enterprises, in particular at the Vostochny cosmodrome.
Vostochny is the first Russian civilian cosmodrome, it is located in the Amur region near the city of Tsiolkovsky (construction began in 2015 on the site of the former village of Uglegorsk). The decree on the creation of the cosmodrome was signed by the President of the Russian Federation in 2007. As part of the first stage of construction in 2012-2016, a universal launch complex for Soyuz-2 series launch vehicles was built here. The second stage of the construction of the cosmodrome involves the construction of a launch pad for Angara-A5 rockets and related infrastructure.
