Putin urges Russia's aerospace industry to develop rocket engines

6/9/2025 13:29

President Vladimir Putin urged aerospace industry leaders on Friday to press on with efforts to develop booster rocket engines for space launch vehicles and build on Russia's longstanding reputation as a leader in space technology.



Putin, who has spent the past week in China and the Russian far eastern port of Vladivostok, flew to the southern Russian city of Samara, where he met industry specialists and toured the Kuznetsov design bureau aircraft engine manufacturing plant.



Quoted by Russian news agencies, Putin said Russia remained a leading force in the development of the aerospace industry.



"It is important to consistently renew production capacity in terms of engines for booster rockets," the agencies quoted Putin as saying late on Friday.



"And in doing so, we must not only meet our own current and future needs but also move actively on world markets and be successful competitors."



Putin noted Russian success in developing innovations in terms of producing engines, particularly in the energy sector, despite the imposition of sanctions by Western countries linked to Moscow's 2022 invasion of Ukraine.