MOSCOW, November 9. /TASS/. Russia will start deploying the Grifon cluster of Earth global monitoring CubeSat satellites in 2024 with the launch of four experimental prototypes and orbit the core constellation in 2025-2026, Roscosmos Chief Yury Borisov said on Thursday.

"Next year, four experimental prototypes will be launched and the core constellation will be orbited in 2025-2026," the Roscosmos head said, replying to a question about when the cluster would be deployed.

The Grifon is a project of the Earth’s global monitoring system intended to comprise 136 CubeSat space vehicles to get data every 30 hours from Russian territory and no less frequently that 38 hours across the world. The new satellite constellation will also help analyze data to reveal changes in natural phenomena and man-made processes, regulate transport flows and monitor the extraction of natural resources.

Roscosmos announced in July that it had sent a proposal to African countries to take part in the project. In October, Roscosmos told TASS that the Grifon project would be included in Russia’s federal program of creating the Sfera multi-satellite constellation.