President Vladimir Putin has decided to stay at the Vostochny Cosmodrome until the Soyuz rocket launch scheduled for Thursday, the Interfax news agency reported Wednesday, citing presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov.
On Thursday morning, another meeting of the state commission of the Vostochny Cosmodrome will be held, Peskov said. The president has decided to wait until the scheduled Thursday attempt, in case the commission makes a decision [on the launch], Peskov was quoted as saying by Interfax.
Earlier on Wednesday, at a meeting of the cosmodrome commission, Putin called for an analysis of the failure of the first launch and said his schedule will depend on the commission's decision.
Putin added that Russia almost lost its space industry in the 1990s, "trading it for sausage."
"In the 1990s we lost almost all of the [space] industry. Specialists who worked in this area know that responsible people thought that we did not need this industry at all — it is an expensive industry —they thought that we would be better having more sausage and bread," Putin was quoted as saying by the news agency.
The launch of the first rocket from Russia's new Vostochny Cosmodrome was scheduled for Wednesday morning. However, 90 seconds before the planned liftoff, the launch was cancelled due to technical problems.
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