Russia's Eastern Cosmodrome Turns Seven

On Saturday Russia's eastern cosmodrome turns seven.

The Defence Ministry's state testing cosmodrome, Svobodny, was founded on March 1st, 1996 by the Russian presidential decree. And a year later, on March 4th, 1997, the history of Russia's newest and youngest cosmodrome began with launching of a Start-1 carrier rocket with a Zeya space vehicle onboard.

The creation of Svobodny allowed Russia to increase its influence in the Far East and ensure economic improvement of the whole region, the press service of the Space troops has reported.

"Svobodny has and uses all modern technologies providing the necessary level of security while preparing and launching rockets", Russian Defence Minister Sergei Ivanov said.

The cosmodrome currently launches Start-1 space rockets developed by a group of industrial enterprises headed by the Moscow Heating Engineering Institute state enterprise.

All the four launchings of space rockets have been a success. Moreover, the space vehicles were placed in the intended orbit with high accuracy. There was also an idea to register the uniquely placed Early Bird-1 satellite in the Guinness Book of Records.

Space Troops Commander, Colonel-General Anatoli Perminov, pointed out that Svobodny's favourable geographic location accounted for the special role of this cosmodrome in the long-term plans of launch vehicle development.