MOSCOW, July 6. /TASS/. The Institute of Astronomy of the Russian Academy of Sciences (INASAN) has selected first seven experiments for the project of the Spektr-UV space telescope planned to be launched in 2025, deputy director of INASAN, a parent scientific organization, Mikhail Sachkov told TASS on Saturday.
"First applications had been collected by April, ultimately seven have been selected as of now," he 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. Spain acts as the project’s basic partner.
The Spanish side has put forth a condition that citizens or organizations from the country or Russia should head the experiments, Sachkov said, adding that inside collaboration with other states is allowed.
The project Spektr-UV is part of Russia’s federal space program for 2016-2025. Initially it was planned to be launched in 2024. Later a source in the domestic space industry told TASS that following changes in the federal space program the launch of the Spektr-UV space telescope was rescheduled for October 23, 2025. 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.