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Russia's Far East is optimal site for new space center - Putin

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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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