The General Director of Russia's Khrunichev space center, Anatoly Kiselev, said the country will still need to rely on Kazakhstan's Baikonur launch facility for at least another six or seven years, the Itar-Tass news agency reported today.

Baikonur, which is leased to the Russians by Kazakhstan, is the only Russian launch site capable of launching the Proton rocket, according to NASA.

During a radio interview, Kiselev said it would cost from $250 million to $500 million and six or seven years to build a similar cosmodrome in Russia. But Russia's other site, the Plesetsk Cosmodrome, will yield new value with the completion of Russia's next-generation booster rocket, the Angara, in the next century, according to Itar-Tass.