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Vostochny space launch facility to be built on time and to a good quality - Putin

"A country with space traditions like Russia should certainly have its own space launch facility,” Putin emphasized

NOVO-OGARYOVO, near Moscow, June 14 (Itar-Tass) - Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday expressed the hope that the Vostochny space launch site will be built on time and to a good quality.

"The construction of the Vostochny space launch pad, a new home space launch facility, is currently under way. This is a very big project. In fact, this is not just a launching site but an entire scientific town. I am sure that the construction of the Vostochny space launch facility will be a serious step forward in the development of space science in general and of high technologies in particular,” Putin said at a meeting with cosmonauts devoted to the 50th anniversary of space flight made by Valentina Tereshkova, the world’s first woman to fly into space.

"A country with space traditions like Russia should certainly have its own space launch facility. The work is under way. I hope it will be done on time and to a good quality,” Putin emphasized.

"Many of us remember that exactly at this time fifty years ago our space pioneers were not just well-known people but national heroes,” the Russian president emphasized.

"These are significant and milestone events in the history of our country and space exploration,” Putin went on to say.

He also said that many of those space pioneers and discoverers continued to be actively involved in social and political life.

"Valentina Tereshkova has always been in the spotlight of public life, in absolutely different areas. She has always been very active. Today, she is a State Duma deputy,” the Russian head of state stressed.

He recalled that during her recent visit to Vienna, Tereshkova had remembered the events of 50 years ago and the first woman’s flight into outer space at the United Nations rostrum.

"We are very pleased that international organizations remember and mark this event together with us,” Putin emphasized.

"When events of this kind take place, when women do things, which far from any person and even any man can do, it naturally becomes a landmark and historical event. It is very pleasant for us to realize that it is a citizen of our country and a citizen of the Soviet Union who became the first woman in space,” President Putin said.

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