President Vladimir Putin saw how work is progressing on building the launch and technical sections of the Soyuz-2 booster rocket, and took part in a video linkup with the International Space Station, the Kremlin press service reports.
The Vostochny Space Launch Centre will conduct future manned space missions and launch automated spacecraft of various purposes for state, international, and commercial programmes. The launch centre’s construction will make it possible to carry out large-scale space projects that will advance and deepen exploration and study of outer space.
The construction work covers an area of more than 1,000 square kilometres. Ten technical and support sites will be completed by 2015. The rocket launch is planned for the end of 2015, and the first manned launch will take place in 2018. During a video linkup with the International Space Station, the President congratulated cosmonauts on their professional holiday, Cosmonautics Day.
“About 1.6 trillion roubles will be allocated to finance space activities under the corresponding state program in the period from 2013 to 2020,” Putin said at a meeting dedicated to problems of the development of the space sector. According to the president, special focus is to be on the most promising areas, such as applied research.
Currently working on board the ISS are Russian cosmonauts Pavel Vinogradov, Roman Romanenko, and Alexander Misurkin, US astronauts Christopher Cassidy and Thomas Marshburn, and space station commander, Canadian Chris Hadfield.
Russkiy Mir Foundation Information Service
