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Russia To Make Space Launches Only Fom Its Territory - Official

Posted on: Saturday, 3 April 2004, 06:00 CST

KRASNOZNAMENSK (Moscow Region). April 3 (Interfax) - Russia plans to make space launches only from its own territory in the future.

"We plan to make space launches only from Plesetsk and Svobodny," Space Troops Commander Vladimir Popovkin said.

While informing Russian and French presidents Vladimir Putin and Jacques Chirac about the Space Troops' operations, he said that "Russia is currently using three cosmodromes - Baikonur, Plesetsk and Svobodny."

"The Baikonur cosmodrome, which Russia rents from Kazakhstan, is the only site from which Russia launches heavy rockets and manned spacecraft. Light and medium-class rockets carrying satellites, primarily military satellites, are normally launched from Plesetsk," Popovkin said.

He said that the Russian space control system "is monitoring Russian and foreign space vehicles to obtain information about the entire situation in outer space.""This system is capable of gathering objective and complete information about space vehicles and their trajectory, and identifying their origin," he said.

"The early warning system has not issued a single false alarm signal since it was put into operation," said Popovkin.

He said about 100 Russian space vehicles are curently orbiting in space.

Russia's space cooperation with France, including in implementing the GLONASS project and in developing the European satellite radio navigation system Galileo, is a priority issue, Popovkin continued.

He announced that "at the initial stage, Russian experts will help France develop computer-simulated forecasts for satellites' movement along low orbits.""In the future, our cooperation will be broadened and we'll help France create its own space monitoring system," Popovkin said.

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