Russia will deploy new ground-based space monitoring systems within the next four years, Space Defense Troops Commander, Lieutenant-General Alexander Golovko said on Tuesday.
“The commissioning of the new systems will considerably increase the Space Defense Troops’ space monitoring capabilities, widen the array of orbits under surveillance and improve space object detection by 50-67%,” he said.
The first such systems will be deployed in the Altai and Primorye Territories. All in all, more than ten systems will be put into operation in different Russian regions by 2018.
Presently, ground-based space monitoring systems are operating in the Moscow region, in the Far East, Karachayevo-Cherkessia in the North Caucasus, and in Tajikistan. They are controlled by the Main Space Surveillance Centre of the Space Defense Troops’ Space Command.
The Centre keeps records of manmade space objects at altitudes from 120,000 to 140,000 km. It processes more than 60,000 measurements a day and has already performed about 500 specialised operations this year to monitor the launch of over 100 spacecraft, keep track of more than 70 space objects, and detect about a dozen near collisions with Russian satellites.