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Roscosmos moves to restart German eROSITA telescope on Spektr-RG space observatory

The head of Roscosmos said the decision was necessary for research

MOSCOW, June 4. /TASS/. Roscosmos has decided to restart the operation of eROSITA, a German telescope on the Spektr-RG space observatory, the Russian company’s Director General Dmitry Rogozin said on Saturday.

"I gave instructions to start work on restoring the operation of the German telescope in the Spektr-RG system so it works together with the Russian telescope," he said in an interview with the Rossiya-24 TV channel.

The head of Roscosmos said the decision was necessary for research.

"They - the people that made the decision [to shut down the telescope] don’t have a moral right to halt this research for humankind just because their pro-fascist views are close to our enemies," he said.

Earlier, Rogozin said that Germany had shut down its telescope at the Spektr-RG space observatory, a joint project with Russia, due to the situation in Ukraine. Later, the press service of the corporation stated that the sanctions imposed by Germany caused losses for the state corporation, which it will assess and ask the partners to pay for.

Following the decision of the German participants in the project to shut down their telescope, Russian researchers had to quickly develop a new research program for the Spektr-RG observatory, which would focus on exploiting the capabilities of the Russian ART-XC telescope to a maximum effect.