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Russia to start deploying new cluster of Sfera next-generation satellites from 2021

Special attention will be paid to providing broadband Internet access and communications, particularly, along the Northern Sea Route, with the help of the Sfera satellite grouping, the Roscosmos chief said

MOSCOW, October 28. /TASS/. Russia’s State Space Corporation Roscosmos will start establishing a new cluster of over 600 satellites under the Sfera (Sphere) program from 2021, Roscosmos Chief Dmitry Rogozin announced on Wednesday.

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"From 2021, we are beginning to deploy the Sfera multi-satellite constellation that will include next-generation, multi-spectrum satellites," Rogozin said at the business forum of the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) titled: ‘Integration. Advanced Development Strategy.’

Special attention will be paid to providing broadband Internet access and communications, particularly, along the Northern Sea Route, with the help of the Sfera satellite grouping, the Roscosmos chief said.

From next year, Russia will also have radar vision devices "that will make it possible to see both at night and through the fog and clouds," Rogozin said.

"We are ready to share this information with our partners in the Eurasian Economic Union," the Roscosmos chief said.

The Sfera program was highlighted by Russian President Vladimir Putin during his annual Q&A session on June 7, 2018. Russia plans to launch over 600 communications and Earth’s remote sensing satellites in the next few years, he said.

The deployment of Russia’s new multi-satellite cluster was stipulated in the ‘Digital Economy’ national program until 2024 approved in the summer of 2017. Russian Deputy Prime Minister Yuri Borisov earlier said in an interview with the daily Vedomosti that the government had set aside over 10 billion rubles (about $130 million) in the 2020-2022 budget for the project of establishing the Sfera orbital satellite grouping.

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