Moscow. August 28. INTERFAX-Krasnoyarsk company Reshetnev Information Satellite Systems (ISS) is ready to become one of the key manufacturers of spacecraft under the Sphere program, which provides for the creation of a global satellite constellation, Roscosmos reported.
"The company, known for the production of modern communications, broadcasting, navigation and geodesy satellites, plans to participate in a competition for the development of at least three groups included in the system," the report says.
On June 7, at the session of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, the head of Roscosmos, Dmitry Rogozin, announced that the cost of the global satellite system "Sphere" program will amount to 800 billion rubles. 500 billion rubles of the program costs are accounted for by private investments, Rogozin said.
In October 2020, Rogozin announced that Russia would begin deploying a satellite constellation as part of the Sphere global communications program in 2021.
Earlier, the first deputy Director General of Roscosmos for the development of the orbital grouping and promising projects, Yuri Urlich, reported that the state corporation will create an "Internet of things" in space within the framework of the Sphere global communications project. The first demonstrators of this technology will appear in 2022.
In July 2018, President Vladimir Putin announced the Sphere project, which provides for the creation of a global network of 600 satellites to provide the territory of the Russian Federation and other countries with Internet and telephone communications. Its competitors are similar projects of OneWeb and SpaceX.
