The first spacecraft of the Sphere program protected the orbital-frequency resource

by time news

The Skif-D spacecraft has successfully completed the task of protecting the orbital-frequency resource, Roscosmos reported. Its flight tests will last until the end of November 2023. Skif-D became the first device launched as part of the Sphere program, an analogue of Starlink and OneWeb.

β€œThe results of the Skif-D radiation measurements are being prepared for shipment to the International Telecommunication Union. Thus, the orbital-frequency resource at this stage of the deployment of the Skif system is protected,” Roskosmos told TASS.

“Sphere” involves providing Russia with satellite Internet and communications. The project is similar to Starlink and OneWeb. It is expected that the constellation will consist of more than 600 spacecraft. In 2020, the cost of the project was estimated at 1.5 trillion rubles, but in 2021, then the head of Roscosmos, Dmitry Rogozin, lowered the estimate to 800 billion rubles. According to him, 500 billion rubles. will come from extrabudgetary funds.

During the service life of the Skif-D, the technologies of communication and control of the spacecraft will be tested in various modes. It is alleged that the characteristics of the device correspond to the design ones.

Skif-D was launched on October 22, 2022 on a Soyuz-2.1b launch vehicle from the Vostochny Cosmodrome. The demonstration satellite belongs to the Skif broadband Internet access system of the Sphere project.

Leonid Uvarchev

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