Vladimir Putin sees the future of space exploration

On Monday Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin brought some good news to Rocket and Space Corporation Energia, located in Korolyov, Moscow Region. The prime minister informed the company’s management that the government had decided to allocate 24.7 billion rubles (around $811,000) for the construction of the Vostochny Space Center in the Amur Region.
After the meeting with Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin in early July, head of Federal Space Agency Anatoly Perminov told RIA Novosti that the issue on financing the space center’s construction had been submitted to the government for further consideration.
On July 19, 35 years to the day since the historic Apollo-Soyuz Test Project, after examining the latest developments at the Rocket and Space Corporation Energia Vladimir Putin said that what he saw was not just the present of space exploration but its future as well. The government will allocate 24.7 billion rubles over the next three years for the construction of a new space center in the Russian Far East, Putin announced.
Perminov said that the space center, which will employ between 5,000 and up to 30,000 people, will consist of a launch pad, an airstrip and plants producing nitrox and hydrogen.
The head of Energia earlier reported that the first spacecraft will be launched at the Vostochny Space Center in 2015, followed by the first manned spacecraft from it in 2018.
On Thursday Anatoly Perminov stressed that Vostochny will be unlike the Baikonur Space Center: “It will be a compact modern complex.”