http://en.rian.ru/russia/20080214/99222921.html
Russia's Far East is optimal site for new space center - Putin
MOSCOW, February 14 (RIA Novosti) - The Amur Region, in Russia's Far East, is
the most favorable location for the construction of a new space center, the
Russian president said on Thursday.
Last November President Vladimir Putin signed a decree to construct a new space
center, to be named Vostochny, in the Amur Region.
Putin told his last annual news conference as Russian president that, "I do not
consider the plans for the construction of the space center are fantastic. We
are developing Plesetsk, we will remain at the Baikonur, but we must take into
account that some launches could be made from Russian territory, both for
civilian and military purposes."
Russia currently uses two launch sites for space carrier rockets and ballistic
missiles tests: the Baikonur space center in the Central Asian Republic of
Kazakhstan, which it has leased since the collapse of the Soviet Union, and the
Plesetsk space center in northwest Russia.
Putin said many locations were considered as potential sites, including the
Pacific coast, but the Amur Region turned out to be the most favorable "for the
construction of the new space center, and we will move towards the goal and
achieve it."
Russia's Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov, who oversees Russia's
military-industrial complex, said last November that construction could take
about 10 years.
He also said that Russia plans to launch its first spacecraft from the
Vostochny space center in 2015, and by 2018 to commence manned space flights
from the new site.
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