Russia plans to launch more than 600 communication and remote sensing satellites, President Vladimir Putin said earlier
MOSCOW, February 3. Federal State Unitary Enterprise "Space Communications" and JSC "Gazprom Space Systems" plan to invest more than 140 billion rubles in the "Sphere" program. This was announced by the Deputy General Director for Development and operation of communication Systems of FSUE "Space Communications" Evgeny Buidinov and Deputy General Director for Business Development of JSC "Gazprom Space Systems" Igor Kot.
"The planned amount of extra-budgetary funding from the Federal State Unitary Enterprise "Space Communications "(own and attracted funds) under the "Sphere" program for the period from 2022 to 2030 is estimated at more than 40 billion rubles," Buidinov said in an interview with the magazine "Russian Space".
According to him, the activities of the Sphere program are planned to be implemented within the framework of public-private partnership. On the part of "Space Communications", it is planned to develop the communication and broadcasting spacecraft of the "Express" series and the promising high-elliptical satellites "Express-RV".
In turn, Kot noted that Gazprom Space Systems plans to attract a total of about 100 billion rubles for the implementation of activities under the Sphere program. The Gazprom subsidiary's program includes three areas: the creation of a spacecraft assembly plant in Shchelkovo, the formation and development of the Smotr space remote sensing system, and the development of the Yamal satellite communications system.
Earlier, Roscosmos Director General Dmitry Rogozin said in an interview with the Rossiya-24 TV channel that the Russian government has allocated 7 billion rubles to start work on the Sphere program. Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke about the Sphere program on the direct line on June 7, 2018. Then he noted that Russia plans to launch more than 600 communication and remote sensing satellites.
