Yuri Koptev seems unsure about how many of his satellites are working, but the situation does not look good

Published: 9/3/1999

According to Yuri Koptev, Head of the Russian space agency, there are currently 131 Russian space satellites - nearly one fifth of all those circling the Earth - and that half of them are technically worn out. Koptev told a government meeting that 60 satellites fulfil defence tasks, 28 are intended for dual purpose tasks and 43 are used for civilian scientific research. He claimed that: "75% of the satellites have exhausted their guaranteed resources and 50 % have worked out their technical resources". In November 1998, Koptev told a press conference that Russia was running 127 satellites and that the service life of 82% of them had expired. He said that the total cost of the Russian satellite programme is 96 billion rubles (over $4 billion) and is mostly financed from the state budget. Koptev stressed the importance to Russia of space services and called on the government to

Article ID: 822