Russia will finalize in August 2010 the...

"The work will end in August," Sergei Tkachenko of the Samara-based Progress design bureau said.

Russia"s Energia space corporation, Progress and the Makeyev missile design facility are designing the Rus-M booster rocket to launch a new-generation manned spacecraft from the Vostochny space center currently under construction in the country"s Far East.

Last October marked the 45th anniversary of the first flight of the Voskhod spacecraft, which carried three cosmonauts. Russia has since been struggling to increase the capacity of its manned spacecraft.

Since the flight of the world"s first cosmonaut, Yury Gagarin, in 1961, Russia has used the R-7-derived space boosters to deliver its manned spacecraft into orbit. The United States has meanwhile designed four booster rockets.

The Rus-M draft model was first presented at a MAKS air show in Moscow last summer.

The launch vehicle is facing tough safety requirements, and will have to guarantee a takeoff

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