Russia, South Africa talk space cooperation prospects
MOSCOW. Oct 16 (Interfax-AVN) - Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos) deputy head Sergei Savelyev has met with South African Science and Technology Minister Naledi Pandor at the Roscosmos headquarters, the agency press service has said.
The two sides discussed prospects of bilateral cooperation in space exploration projects within the framework of the BRICS Group and the RadioAstron program and touched upon the need to develop a network of remote sensing satellites and personnel training for the space industries of Russia and South Africa, said the report posted on the agency website.
Savelyev said Russia was ready to help South African universities train space industry personnel "in the context of the agreement on using South African deep space stations in Russia's mission RadioAstron."
"In the future South Africans may receive scientific data from the RadioAstron spacecraft and South Africa radio-astronomy laboratories may get involved in very-long-baseline interferometry studies. African scientists may also start working on payloads, scientific spacecraft, to be delivered to orbit by Russian launch vehicles," the press service quoted Savelyev as saying.
At the end of the meeting, it was decided to add the training of space industry personnel to the agenda of an expert meeting and a BRICS summit.
