MOSCOW, March 24. /TASS/. Russia may need a few additional ground stations to receive information from the Arktika satellites, Deputy Head of the Section for Multispectral Scanners Development at the Russian Space Systems Company Yuri Gektin told TASS on Tuesday

"For the stable inflow of information from those space apparatuses, we may need to build a few stations in higher latitudes," he said.

Presently, one Arktika-M satellite transmits data from the orbit. Scientists will have to analyze new tasks and to decide in which direction to develop the equipment, he added.

A Soyuz-2.1b carrier rocket with the first Arktika-M satellite blasted off from the Baikonur at 09:55 Moscow time on February 28. In about nine minutes after the lift-off, the upper stage comprising the rocket’s Fregat booster and the satellite separated from the carrier’s third stage. It took the booster more than two hours to put the satellite into the working orbit. The Arktika-M highly elliptical hydro-meteorological space system should comprise at least two satellites. Arktika-M satellites will provide round-the-clock all-weather monitoring of the surface of Earth and the Arctic seas, and also constant and reliable communications.