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North Pole ice-resistant platform’s sailing test due to begin on Day of Polar Explorers

The platform’s onboard scientific complex features 15 laboratories

ST. PETERSBURG, May 18. /TASS/. The North Pole ice-resistant self-propelled platform, the building of which continues at the Admiralty Shipyard in St. Petersburg, will begin the sailing test on May 21, the Day of Polar Explorers, the Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute’s Director Alexander Makarov said on Wednesday.

"The Admiralty Shipyard is finalizing the platform. Yesterday, we went there to see how the process continues - everything continues as planned, everything is fine," he said. "In September, we expect the maiden voyage. <…> On Saturday, God willing, I hope the sailing test will begin, right on the Day of Polar Explorers."

The Russian Ministry of Natural Resources earlier said the ensign would be flown in St. Petersburg in July. Later on, the platform would sail to Murmansk, and from there - to the first expedition, which is scheduled for September.

The North Pole’s displacement is more than 10,000 tonnes; the maximum term of autonomous work in terms of food supplies is one year, in terms of fuel - two years. The platform’s onboard scientific complex features 15 laboratories. The vessel has a field camp, which can be organized on ice. The platform’s team of researchers is 34 people.

The national hydrometeorology service, Roshydromet, and the Admiralty Shipyards inked an agreement on the North Pole platform in spring, 2018. On April 10, 2019, the platform was laid. Alexander Buzakov, Director General of the Admiralty Shipyards said earlier the platform’s commissioning act might be signed on July 1, 2022.

The platform is 83 meters long, its breadth is about 22 meters, and it is more than 11 meters high. The vessel’s hull can resist the compression of long-term ice, which has been confirmed in model experiments in the ice pool. One of the decks will have a runway for Mil Mi-8 and Mi-38 helicopters.

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