Svobodny (Russian: Свобо́дный) is a Russian rocket launch site used since 1996 and located in the Amur Oblast. Originally constructed as a launch site for intercontinental ballistic missiles, it was planned as a replacement for Baikonur Cosmodrome, which became a foreign territory after the dissolution of the Soviet Union, but the development was not finished because of financial difficulties. The final choice for the location of the cosmodrome fell on a site near the railway station of Ledianaja, used for several decades by the 27th rocket division of Strategic Rocket ForcesCite error: A <ref>
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However, the complex launched the Israeli Eros B Satellite on April 25, 2006 aboard a Start class rocket. Plans were to launch again at the site in the months following.[citation needed]