Russia’s President Putin says he is interested in allowing foreign investment in the country’s new rocket and satellite launch site at the Vostochny Cosmodrome in the Far East of Russia.

Bloomberg reported that Putin, speaking at an Economic Forum in Vladivostok, told delegates that he was ready to invite foreign partners to help develop the Cosmodrome.

“It’s not a military cosmodrome,” Putin said during the forum’s plenary session. “We don’t just believe that it’s possible to work with foreign partners there, we are interested in this and will definitely include them in this cooperation.”

The new Cosmodrome has been beset by incompetence and fraud, and at least one failed satellite launch. Workers have complained of not being paid and went on hunger strike to alert the world to their predicament.

Stupidly, a recent rocket failure a year ago was caused by technicians allegedly using on-board data that was pre-programmed as if the rocket was being launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in far-off Khazakhstan.

Russia’s Prosecutor General has filed criminal actions over an estimated $150 million in losses at Vostochny.

Other posts by Chris Forrester:

1. Virgin Galactic in stock split
2. Thuraya-3 suffers major problem
3. AST SpaceMobile hit by Class Action
4. Optimism under threat at SES
5. Rivada visits Terran Orbital’s manufacturing HQ
6. Avanti wins spectrum debt obligation case
7. SpaceX breaks records for re-use launchers
8. IRIS2 already in trouble?
9. Intelsat contemplates next steps

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