EU To Finance Russian Aerospace Training Center

SPACEMART

Maintaining space operations skills will be critical in supporting Russia's continued presence in space

Moscow (Interfax) Jan. 30, 2001
The European Union earmarks 3.2 million euro for the Russian Aviation Space Agency (Rosaviakosmos) to maintain its information training center.

A report by the European Commission's office in Russia says that Commission member Chris Patten and Agency Director Yuri Koptev took part in opening the center on Friday.

The center will prepare new standards for the aerospace companies of Europe and Russia to promote business cooperation on the communication satellites' launch market.

The report says the center's first educational programs will be aimed at familiarizing engineers with new spacecraft components' standards.

Bringing the parameters and rules of satellite components' production into harmony would make Russian satellite designers and launch engineers more competitive, says the report.

Another no less important task for the center is to fix common certification procedures for EU and Russian space equipment. This assignment presupposes the creation of a certification center for electromagnetic compatibility in Zheleznogorsk, a town in the Krasnoyarsk region.

SPACEMART

ESA Considers Opening Kourou To Russian Launchers

Moscow (Interfax) Jan. 10, 2001
The European Space Agency will sit down in March to consider the possibility of Russian Soyuz rockets being launched from the Kourou launch site in French Guiana.