MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Putin held a video conference with the ISS as Russia is celebrating Cosmonautics Day on Tuesday to commemorate the first manned space flight on April 12, 1961, when a booster rocket took into orbit the Vostok spacecraft with the first cosmonaut on board – Soviet citizen Yuri Gagarin.
"Despite any difficulties we face on the ground, people in space work side by side, hand in hand, they help each other and carry out tasks of utmost importance not just for our countries, but for the whole of humanity. And this is a very important area of our cooperation with the United States, as well as with other countries," Putin said.
Since 2001, many countries around the world have been holding Yuri's Night sponsored by the Space Generation Advisory Council, an official adviser of the UN program on using space equipment. It focuses on two events: the first manned space flight (April 12, 1961, Soviet Union) and the first manned flight under the Space Shuttle program (April 12, 1981, United States).
According to Putin, the Vostochny space launch center in Russia's Far East is designated to operate in the interests of Russia's economy and develop cooperation with foreign partners.
"We expect to carry out commercial launches and manned launches, including in the interests of our partners, as soon as the new Vostochny cosmodrome is available," the Russian president said.
The Vostochny space port which has been under construction since 2012 was conceived as an alternative to Baikonur, which is on lease to Russia until 2050. The first launch from Vostochny is planned for April 27, according to the Russian state corporation Roscosmos.
