Russia has all it needs to retain its leadership position in space. By 2015, it will possess a six-seater space shuttle for replacing the veteran Soyuz capsule and for carrying manned missions to Mars. By the same year, it also hopes to have won at least 15 percent of the international space launch market.
Space officials told this Prime Minister Vladimir Putin on Monday at a meeting with him at the Moscow headquarters of the Russian Energia Space Corporation.
The Premier pledged adequate state support: "The goals before the space industry suppose radical innovation, including the use of latest technologies in all fields. Long-term space programmes are engines of scientific and economic progress and also bolster national security. Accordingly, the state treats the space sector as a top priority and devotes special attention to it."
Even as crisis loomed large, the funds for the space industry continued to grow. In 2011, the sector is to receive 67 billion roubles. Another 28 billion will go to accomplish the GLONASS global positioning and navigation system. Importantly, there will also be a new spaceport - named Vostochny, in the Region of Amur close to this country’s border with China.
"Vostochny will be Russia’s first civilian spaceport. It will also eliminate the need for renting space facilities abroad. Late on Sunday, the government ruled to earmark 25 billion roubles for the Vostochny project. The funding will be spread over three years," said Mr. Putin.
The Premier also instructed the Energia Space Corporation and the Russian Space Agency to intensify cooperation with counterpart companies and agencies in the European Union, Japan, China and the United States. Joint plans include a September change of the guard on the International Space Station, blasts-off of Russian Soyuz boosters from French Guiana and launches of foreign satellites by Russian rockets. One of these satellites will form a research module of the ISS.
The Premier discussed these and other issues with Russian and American veterans of the 1970s Soyuz-Apollo programme, which included a dock-up of a Soviet Soyuz and an American Apollo spaceship 35 years ago last week. Mr. Putin hailed that historic achievement as the start of a new era of international cooperation in space.
The Apollo commander at the time Thomas Stafford presented him with a memorial medal.
The Russian Premier presented each veteran with a memorial watch. Numerous photo opportunities go without saying.
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