dengi-info.com
Lavochkin Research and Production Association had to postpone the construction and launch of the Arktika space system, said General Director Sergey Lemeshevsky, Russian newspaper Izvestia reported.
The schedule under the Arktika project was postponed due to a need to reconstruct part of the equipment in view of the sanctions policy currently in place, Lemeshevsky said.
The project's terms of reference provide for a substantial unification of the Arktika system with the geostationary satellite Elektro, which would be a logical step, as the systems' functionalities are similar, but have different orbits, as noted in the report.
"Now we see that the first satellite Elektro-A is functioning but there are some faults hereto related. Therefore, we have significantly upgraded the second Elektro-L satellite. Similarly, we have decided to upgrade Arktika to avoid problems faced with the first Elektro-L satellite. But the difference is that we have manufactured both Elektro-L facilities using foreign components. We are not using the Chinese-made electronic and component base, so we rely mainly on the Russian electronics industry," Lemeshevsky said.
According to Ivan Moiseyev, the scientific director of the Space Policy Institute, the postponement in timing will likely not seriously impact the operations, as the Arktika network is to duplicate the functionality of the Russian satellite constellation already in use at the moment.
The Arktika network should also assist in the exploration of minerals in polar regions.