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Russia reschedules ultraviolet space telescope launch for 2025 — source

The launch of the Spektr-UV space observatory is planned for October 23, 2025

MOSCOW, May 21. /TASS/. The launch of the Spektr-UV space telescope planned for 2024 has been rescheduled for October 2025, following changes in Russia’s federal space program, a source in the domestic space industry told TASS on Tuesday.

"The launch of the Spektr-UV space observatory is planned for October 23, 2025," the source said.

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The press office of Russia’s State Space Corporation Roscosmos confirmed to TASS that the launch of the Spektr-UV observatory had been scheduled for 2025.

According to the source, the space telescope is due to be delivered to a geo-synchronous orbit with an inclination of 35-40 degrees with its flight path passing over the Atlantic Ocean, Spain and northwest Africa. This orbit will help maintain round-the-clock communications with the observatory.

Russia’s Lavochkin Research and Production Enterprise will exercise control of the space observatory. The choice of a carrier rocket for the delivery of the Spektr-UV observatory to the orbit will depend on the flight tests of the Angara launcher.

"The selected orbit will make it possible to launch the spacecraft both from the Baikonur spaceport, using the available launch vehicles, including a Proton-M carrier rocket, and from the Vostochny Cosmodrome, using promising Russian Angara-class carriers. The choice of a specific carrier will depend on the results of the flight tests of the Angara rocket," the source said.

The Spektr-UV space observatory is an international project aimed at studying the Universe in the ultraviolet band of the electromagnetic spectrum that is inaccessible for observations from Earth. The project is part of Russia’s federal space program for 2016-2025. Spain acts as the project’s basic partner.

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