spacetoday.net: Russia seeks to accelerate work on new spaceport

Posted: Thu, Sep 4, 2014, 8:03 AM ET (1203 GMT)
Putin at Vostochny in Sept 2014 (Roscosmos)

Russian president Vladimir Putin said this week he wants to speed up work on a new spaceport under construction in the country's Far East region. Putin, during a visit to the site of the Vostochny Cosmodrome, said he would pledge an additional $1.3 billion to complete construction of the facility. Putin said work on the cosmodrome was 30 to 55 days behind schedule, and the pace of the facility's construction needed to be picked up in order to support a first launch next year. As part of that effort, Putin said he was placing the project under the direct supervision of Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin, rather than the Russian space agency Roscosmos. The spaceport is designed to support launches of Soyuz and, later, Angara launch vehicles.