MOSCOW, April 16. /TASS/. The Russians made the world's first stratospheric jump off an Ilyushin Il-76 aircraft from a height of more than 10,000 meters onto the North Pole, Russia's RuVDS Company told TASS.

"Russian stratonauts have made the world's first jump from a height of more than 10,000 meters onto the North Pole. The record has been set by cosmonaut, Hero of Russia Mikhail Kornienko, instructor pilot Alexander Lynnik and founder of the Stratonavtika Aerospace Laboratory Denis Efremov. They have jumped off an Il-76 aircraft. They were in free fall for about two minutes and opened parachutes at an altitude of about 1 km," the company said.

The record was dedicated to Russia and its role in the Arctic's development, Kornienko said. "Our people were the first to make a non-stop flight across the North Pole early last century, and it was the flag of Russia that was installed on the ocean floor at the North Pole point in 2007, and I have always been adamant it was we, Russian citizens, who should make a record stratospheric jump. This is a patriotic project, a mission, where the purpose is to emphasize the continuity of generations and the importance of the region," the cosmonaut said.

Another part of the event was to drop from the aircraft the equipment due to be deployed on a drifting ice floe in the Arctic. "Now, the stratospheric mission team will face another task - to deploy the Arctic data center of a Russian hosting provider - RuVDS. The equipment, delivered to the camp by the aircraft from which the jump was made, is designed to work in extreme conditions. The project will also involve a satellite, which the hosting provider put into orbit in July, 2023," RuVDS said.

RuVDS's CEO Nikita Tsaplin stressed that in the equipment's stability will be tested in Arctic temperatures and conditions, and specialists will assess how the northern lights influence the signal and other parameters. "In the future, the project will allow a new approach to deployment of computing power in the region by opening new opportunities for both scientists, by cutting communication costs, and for businesses - both in the Arctic's industrial development and in implementation of initiatives, like, for example, the Northern Sea Route," he said.

The compact data center will be launched at the Barneo ice camp, located in the immediate vicinity of the North Pole. The server equipment will communicate with the RUVDS satellite by transmitting its telemetry. The hosting provider and specialists of Stratonavtika LLC - the project's technical partner - will monitor accuracy and quality of transmitted data.