VOSTOCHNY COSMODROME, April 12. /TASS/. Russian president Vladimir Putin and his Belarusian counterpart Alexander Lukashenko on Tuesday, the Cosmonautics Day, familiarized themselves with the construction progress of the Vostochny cosmodrome in the Amur region.

The leaders visited, in particular, the construction sites of the command post and the launch facility for the Angara launch vehicle, as well as inspected from a helicopter the infrastructure of the cosmodrome.

Vostochny is Russia's first civilian cosmodrome and is located in the Amur region near Tsiolkovsky, the city established in 2015 on the site of the former village of Uglegorsk. The president signed a decree on the creation of the cosmodrome in 2007. As part of the first phase of construction in 2012-2016, a universal launch complex for Soyuz-2 launch vehicles was erected here. The second stage of construction envisages the construction of a launch pad for Angara-A5 launch vehicles and associated infrastructure.

The development of social infrastructure in Vostochny continues. Thus, the construction of three residential buildings of 260 apartments in total is going on. In the nearest future it is planned to build and put into operation four more residential buildings with more than 460 apartments, which will allow to fully provide the launch crews with housing.