Russia’s new space project will include more than 600 satellites
RUSSIA, October 22. Russia’s new Sphere space project will include more than 600 satellites. It was reported by RIA Novosti referring to Denis Manturov, the Deputy Prime Minister and Head of Ministry of Industry and Trade of Russia.
According to him, the main objective of the project is to achieve high quality of space communication services in the interests of development and security of the country.
“The Sphere project is supposed to create a satellite constellation of more than 600 spacecraft,” the head of the Ministry of Industry and Trade specified.
Manturov noted that the Sphere project received 14 billion rubles from the state budget in 2022, 18 billion rubles each in 2023 and 2024, and 8.5 billion rubles have already been reserved for 2025.
On October 22, a Soyuz-2.1b rocket with the first vehicle of the Sphere multi-satellite constellation, the “Skif-D”, was launched from the Vostochny launch site. It will also deliver three Gonets-M communications satellites. “Soyuz” is to launch the upper stage “Fregat” with four satellites into a non-closed orbit. After the launch, “Fregat” will deliver three “Gontsov-M” and “Skif-D” to the specified orbits.
