September 21, 2021

GK LAUNCH SERVICES AND ARCTURUS CENTER SIGNED A COOPERATION AGREEMENT

ZHUKOVSKY. On July 20, the opening day of the MAKS-2021 Salon, Joint Stock Company “GK Launch Services” and Center for Space Technologies “Arcturus” entered into a cooperation agreement. The agreement was signed by Konstantin Gufan, Director, Center for Space Technologies “Arcturus” of the Federal State Institution «Scientific Research Institute “Spetsvuzavtomatika”, and Alexander Serkin, CEO, JSC “GK Launch Services”.

Arcturus Center and GK Launch Services identified several priority areas of cooperation. Among them are shaping and implementation of projects for scientific and educational purposes; activities for commercial launches of spacecraft; popularization of Russian launch vehicles on the international market; information support of the educational project “Space Universal Education” (космовсеобуч.рф), aimed at the development of engineering and IT personnel in the Russian Federation.

The Don delegation includes Anton Alekseev, Advisor to the Governor of the Rostov– on-Don Region, who noted, “The beginning of a landmark partnership is a significant step for the development of promising projects in the space industry in the south of the country. It is extremely important for us to have the opportunity to build a dialogue of the Don organizations with the leading organizations of the Russian space industry. Also, the possibility of joint work on all-Russian educational initiatives is of special importance for us”.

“The path to discoveries begins as early as at school or at the institute. We are happy to establish relations with the Arcturus Center and look forward to practical cooperation in launches of satellites, thereby supporting educational projects of young talents and inspiring schoolchildren and students for further research and work in the field of space”, said Alexander Serkin.

“Arcturus Center sets itself a number of challenges of developing technological competencies in the assembly and launch of spacecraft, as well as in educational projects. In our view, partnership with JSC “GK Launch Services” will allow implementation of ideas and find applied solutions of important state problems in the field of space technologies”, emphasized Konstantin Gufan.

The parties to the Agreement set themselves a goal to popularize space and digital technologies, as well as conduct all-Russian events involving research and technical universities, school club movement organizations and schools in Russia in the technological processes of the near space and the Earth exploration for solving applied scientific problems and establishment of topical scientific agenda.


Center for Space Technologies “Arcturus” was established in 2020 at the Federal State Institution «Scientific Research Institute “Spetsvuzavtomatika” of the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation to implement a number of initiatives in the field of space technologies.

The mission of the Center is centralized provision of technologies to the wide academic community for the applied scientific research and establishment of a burning scientific agenda for the exploration of near space, as well as involvement of a broader number of participants from regional scientific communities, universities, institutes, school club movements and schools in space research. A separate area and purpose of the Center’s activities is the support of projects in the field of space and digital technologies.

The Center acts as a technical consultant of the Don schoolchildren’s team in the space satellite-building project; the satellite will be orbited in November 2021 within the framework of the AgroSAT project of Independent Non-Commercial Organization “Fund for Innovative Development of Education and Science” as the winner of the Planet Watch Program of the Innovation Promotion Foundation.

 

GK Launch Services is a commercial launch operator. The core business of GK Launch Services is to provide launch services – to set up and perform spacecraft commercial launches using Russian launch vehicles and the in