Establishment of Eurasian Space Agency suggested

Establishing a Eurasian Space Agency sounds like a good idea. Director General of the Russian state corporation Roscosmos Dmitry Rogozin made the relevant statement during the Eurasian Economic Union business forum Space Integration in Moscow on 3 December, the press service of the Eurasian Economic Commission told BelTA.

According to Dmitry Rogozin, Eurasian Economic Union member states have competences in the space industry. He said: “In Belarus it is primarily the Peleng company that we buy optic equipment from. As for Kazakhstan, it is definitely the Baikonur cosmodrome and the SBIK enterprise, which was built using an Airbus technology and is now underutilized. There are astronomy centers in all the Eurasian Economic Union countries. It is a good foundation. All of them are in the penny bank of our cooperation.”

The European Space Agency brought many countries together although only France, Germany, Italy, and Spain have big space capabilities. Dmitry Rogozin noted: “At a certain stage we may integrate our assets into a single asset the way Europe has done. I'd like us to seriously discuss the establishment of the Eurasian Space Agency.”

Participants of the forum backed the initiative. In particular, Chairman of the Presidium of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus Vladimir Gusakov said he was confident that the existing R&D accomplishments in space industry will become the foundation for expanding space integration in the Eurasian economic space. In turn, Member of the Board (Minister) for Integration and Macroeconomics of the Eurasian Economic Commission Sergei Glazyev noted that the establishment of the Eurasian Space Agency is an idea, which time has come.

Chairman of the Board of the Eurasian Economic Commission Mikhail Myasnikovich noted that countries of the Eurasian Economic Union actively use manufacturing and infrastructure capabilities of the largest space industry, which was united in the past. Work is in progress to determine the composition of a future satellite constellation of the Eurasian Economic Union states. Ways to integrate existing orbital and ground-based assets of the space industry are being considered. Mikhail Myasnikovich reminded that a Eurasian Economic Union program on manufacturing and providing space products and geoinformation products and services based on national sources of remote Earth sensing data was adopted in July 2020. The creation of advanced space systems based on two Belarusian-Russian satellites with extremely high spatial resolution and three Kazakh satellites with average resolution will be the key stage of the program.

Mikhail Myasnikovich said: “I am convinced that results of the program will be actively used by Eurasian Economic Union countries. I am talking primarily about transport and logistics connectivity and the development of infrastructure in the Eurasian Economic Union, merchandise tracking and unhindered freight transportation in the union, space communication systems, satellite navigation technologies based on the GLONASS system, and many other applications.”

Deputy Prime Minister of Belarus Igor Petrishenko, First Deputy Prime Minister of Kyrgyzstan Arzybek Kozhoshev, and First Deputy Prime Minister of Kazakhstan Alikhan Smailov also took part in the forum.

Written by belta.by