Russian space agency Roscosmos plans to build a launch pad for a super-heavy rocket at the Far Eastern Vostochny space center before 2030, Roscosmos chief Igor Komarov said.

According to previous plans, Roscosmos was to build a super-heavy rocket launch pad after 2030. The launch of a Soyuz-5 rocket from the Vostochny space center was scheduled for 2034, and a super-heavy rocket was expected to take off a year later.

"Considering that Soyuz-5 will be the first stage for a super-heavy rocket to deliver our payloads and conduct missions to the moon and Mars, we are now tackling this issue according to a schedule different that the one earlier mentioned in the (Roscosmos) strategy, he told reporters.

"We will speed up the process as soon as possible," he said. "This is the task that had been put before us."

The construction of the Vostochny space center in the Amur region began in 2010. A Soyuz-2.1a rocket was successfully launched from Vostochny for the first time on April 28. Vostochny occupies an area of about 700 sq. km. It is destined to become the first national facility for civilian space launches, ensuring Russia’s full-scale access to outer space and reducing the dependence of the Russian space industry on the Baikonur space center in Kazakhstan.