MOSCOW, March 14. /TASS/. Member-states of the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) plan to pool together a united orbital grouping of satellites for remote sensing of the Earth, Nikolai Kushanryov, the director of the industrial policy department of the Eurasian Economic Commission told Izvestia daily.
"Already in the first half of next year, the Eurasian Economic Commission plans to draft an intergovernmental agreement and interstate program for integration of the existing orbital and grounds resources was the space systems designed to do remote sensing of the Earth’s crust," he said.
"A joint use of the satellite grouping is due to begin as early as in 2019," Kushnaryov said.
In addition to it, participants in the project also plan to set up a joint commercial operator of orbital and geo-informational services. It will supervise commercial operations of the grouping, Kushnaryov said.
Also, operators from all economic sectors might benefit from visiting a unified information portal that would offer the results of monitoring of industrial parks, urban development areas, transport corridors, forestry facilities, and agricultural producers.
Officials at the European Economic Commission told Izvestia they hope the first EAEU space vehicle fitted out with innovative onboard equipment will be manufactured by 2020. New satellites will have the characteristics surpassing those of foreign analogues in many ways.
Construction of new satellite technologies will come on stream by 2023 and the orbital grouping will be deployed in full.
At present, the commission is assessing the amounts of investing that will be required. A number of large organizations, like the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development are eyeing opportunities for investment in the project.