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Russia's federal space agency has started work to design a new carrier rocket for manned flights from a new space centre in the country's Far East, an official said on Tuesday.
Russian space agency Roscosmos chief Anatoly Perminov said priority would be given to the rocket's reliability and safety, including crew evacuation at any stage of the flight.
He said the new rocket would be used as a platform for heavier carriers with payloads of 50-60 tonnes and super-heavy carriers with payloads of 130-150 tonnes.
The construction of the new space centre, Vostochny, will start in 2011 and will be completed in 2018.
Russia currently uses the Baikonur space centre in the Central Asian Republic of Kazakhstan that it leased since the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Seven launch pads are to be built at the space centre, including two for manned flights and two for space freighters.
A government official said in September that an inter-agency working group had been created, and that work to design elements of the station's infrastructure was in progress.
