Russia to partner with China in operating Vostochny space centre

MOSCOW, January 27. /TASS/. Partnership with China will help drive activity at the new Vostochny space centre being built in Russia's Far East, a top Russian space engineer told students on Tuesday. The prediction was delivered in readings to an audience at Moscow's Bauman State Technical University by the chief academic secretary of federal space agency Roscosmos, Aleksander Milovanov. Vostochny is under construction in Russia's Amur region, bordering China in the south. When completed, it is intended to reduce Russia's dependency on Baikonur cosmodrome, located in and leased from neighbour Kazakhstan. The project has been hailed by Russian President Vladimir Putin as "one of modern Russia's biggest and most ambitious" and is considered a point of growth for the entire Russian Far East. Baikonur space centre currently handles 75 percent of Russia’s space launches. Read more