The construction of the infrastructure for the Angara carrier rocket at the Vostochny spaceport will begin no sooner than the spring of 2018, the CEO of the research institute of launch complexes (NIISK) at the Center for Operation of Ground-Based Space Infrastructure said on Wednesday.

"Most likely, this year will be spent on approving everything [the design documentation] and from next year digging will probably start," NIISK CEO Ruslan Mukhamedzhanov said.

"The documentation will be approved but most likely winter will come by this time, the soil will be frozen and it will be problematic to dig. Apparently, the digging work will start when it is warm," the chief executive said.

The commencement of actual work should not be expected sooner than next year as "there are a lot of organizational inter-departmental issues that can’t be resolved quickly," he said.

Russia to spend $630 mln on launch pad for Angara carrier rocket at Vostochny spaceport.

About 38 billion rubles ($630 million) are planned to be spent on building the launch facility for Angara carrier rockets at the Vostochny spaceport, according to the documents of State Space Corporation Roscosmos posted on the website of state purchases on August 11.

"The intended (maximum) cost of the construction of the launch compound with one launcher in compliance with the design documentation developed by the 31st State Design Institute of Special Construction and the construction’s consolidated estimate calculation in 2017 prices is 37,752.3 million rubles," the document says.

The specified sum does not include the development, manufacture and assembly of technological equipment at the launch compound, the materials say.

According to the Roscosmos document, the construction completion and the commissioning of this infrastructure are scheduled for 2022.

Russian Deputy Defense Minister Timur Ivanov who visited the Vostochny spaceport in the Russian Far East in late May was informed that the construction of the launch pad for the Angara carrier rocket at this cosmodrome would cost 58 billion rubles ($968 million) and would be completed in 2023.

As was reported earlier, Roscosmos planned to hold an open tender among companies in the fall of 2017 for a contract for building the second stage of the Vostochny spaceport, including the launch facility for Angara carrier rockets and other infrastructural facilities.