Russia: Putin calls for further development of Russian space industry

Russian President Vladimir Putin called for further development of the Russian space industry during a meeting with MPs on the Federal Space Programme for 2016-2025 in Sochi, Thursday. "Today we will discuss the draft of the , we will discuss the priorities of development of Russian cosmonautics in the future," Putin stated, before urging MPs to "provide further development of the space industry" and "development of new directions of exploration." Outlining important areas of development Putin said: "We need to strengthen the Russian group of spacecraft, focusing on solving practical problems. Important areas in space are communications and Earth remote sensing." "Special attention in the programme should be paid to the strengthening of our positions in the market of rocket launches in the field of manned spaceflight and delivery of cargo to orbit, primarily of a commercial nature," he added. The Russian president also called on Russian missile developers to look to the future when designing their products. "We need to understand what kinds of rockets will be needed in the future and in which directions we have to focus our resources," Putin said.