The funds for the creation and launch of the Spectr-UF (World Space Observatory – Ultraviolet) telescope have been allocated, Lev Zeleny, scientific director of the Institute of Space Research (IKI) of the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS), reports to RIA Novosti.
According to him, the allocation of annual funding for scientific space in the amount of 14-15 billion rubles – “this is actually reduced money, this is the restoration of the budget”, which will be enough for basic research of the Moon, Venus and work on “Spectrum-UV”.
“In particular, Spectrum-UV is a very good experiment, Russian Hubble. Now we will be able to launch it as planned, in 2025, ”Zeleny said.
In February 2019, Mikhail Sachkov, Deputy Scientific Leader of the Spectr-UF project, Deputy Director of the Institute of Astronomy of the Russian Academy of Sciences, said that Roskosmos intends to cut funding for the Spektr-UF space telescope project by three times in 2019, and ten times more, which will actually stop work on the creation of the telescope.
In June 2018, Mikhail Khailov, Deputy General Director of Roskosmos for Automatic Space Complexes and Systems, announced that Spektr-UF would be launched on the Angara-A5 rocket from the Vostochny cosmodrome in 2024.
According to the Federal Space Program for 2016-2025, the launch of Spectra-UF is scheduled for 2024. The space observatory is designed for imaging and spectroscopy in the ultraviolet portion of the electromagnetic spectrum. The closest analogue of Spectra-UV is the American Hubble.
