Russian space agency Roscosmos has joined hands with S7 airline to build a new orbital cosmodrome complex, a source in the aerospace industry told daily Izvestia. The new cosmodrome complex will be used to assemble and fuel spacecraft. The complex is also expected to be used to launch spacecraft into near-earth orbits as well as for Mars and Moon flights. Russian space agency also wants to use this port as a refueling and supply point.

“We have been successfully cooperating with S7 for a long time and plan to continue this partnership,” the source told Izvestia.

S7 Airlines (PJSC Siberia Airlines) is headquartered in Ob, Novosibirsk Oblast, Russia. The main bases of the group are Domodedovo International Airport and Tolmachevo Airport. According to RT, the Russian S7 group is already involved in space rocket launches though one of its subsidiaries. The group owns Sea Launch—the floating rocket launching system—which uses Russian-Ukrainian carrier rockets Zenit blasting off from the Odyssey floating platform. In September 2016, S7 bought the Odyssey mobile maritime launch platform, now used by the Sea Launch system for equatorial launches of commercial payloads. According to some earlier reports, the commercial launches from the floating platform could restart by 2018.

Andrey Ionin, the member of the Russian Academy of Cosmonautics, described the new agreement as unprecedented for the Russian space industry. According to Ionin, this new association will be a “big agreement involving a large private investor in the Russian space industry.”

“It is a unique situation not only for Russia but for the whole world as a new stage requiring the creation of new rocket and space systems is coming,” he said, as quoted by the media.

Roscosmos (the Roscosmos State Corporation for Space Activities) is the Russian governmental agency responsible for aerospace research and for developing space programs of the Russian Federation. The agency is headquartered in Moscow, and was earlier known as the Russian Aviation and Space Agency. In 2015, Roscosmos was merged with the United Rocket and Space Corporation to create the Roscosmos State Corporation. Roscosmos currently uses Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan for the launching of its space missions. Another launch facility Vostochny Cosmodrome is also being built in the Russian Far East in Amur Oblast.

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