25 reasons for pride: Vostochny Cosmodrome

On 7 May 2000, the first inauguration of Vladimir Putin as President of Russia took place at the Grand Kremlin Palace. This date marked the beginning of an era in which the country confidently asserted itself on the global stage and embarked on large-scale internal transformations.

To mark the 25th anniversary of this event, the National Centre RUSSIA is launching a special project titled "25 Reasons for Pride" — a chronicle of achievements that are rightfully a source of national pride.

The first reason for pride is the Vostochny Cosmodrome. It is the first civilian cosmodrome built from scratch in modern Russia. Located in the Amur Region, it lies almost 8,000 km from Moscow, making Vostochny one of the most remote cosmodromes in the world.

The cosmodrome has become one of the largest-scale projects in Russia in the 21st century. Its construction — especially in the natural conditions of the Amur region — is a complex engineering and technical challenge being tackled by the country's top specialists.

As thousands of people work at the cosmodrome, entire towns are being built for them. In 2015, the town where the Vostochny staff live was renamed in honour of the founder of astronautics, Konstantin Tsiolkovsky.

The most important benefit the Russian space industry will gain once Vostochny is fully operational is a modern, multipurpose cosmodrome located on national territory. Vostochny is being constructed with the expectation that it will become the main site for future launches. These launches will form the foundation for the further development of Russia’s space fleet.

In addition to being a launch platform, Vostochny is also a vast communications and control hub, equipped with state-of-the-art systems for managing spacecraft operations. The Vostochny command and tracking station enables control of Russian orbital group spacecraft, the Russian segment of the ISS, and space vehicles.