RUSSIA LAUNCHES FIRST NEW SPACE ROCKET SINCE SOVIET ERA

Russia launched its first new design of space rocket since the Soviet era from the northern military site of Plesetsk , aiming to break its reliance on foreign suppliers as well as the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. The new generation rockets are a key to Putin’s effort to reform a once-pioneering space industry hobbled by years of budget cuts and a brain drain in the 1990s. Reuters

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