Russia Earmarks $800 Million For New Cosmodrome

Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said Russia would earmark $800 million to start the construction of a new cosmodrome.

Putin said in televised remarks at a government meeting that Russia wants to build a new site called "Vostochny" near the town of Uglegorsk in the Far Eastern Amur region, and it should come online by 2015.

Putin said the site "would guarantee Russia full independence of space activities."

Russia currently rents its main Soviet-era spaceport Baikonur from neighboring Kazakhstan.

compiled from agency reports