Russian Scientists Plan To Convince Gov't To Declassify Space Satellites Catalog

Russian Scientists Plan to Convince Gov't to Declassify Space Satellites Catalog

The Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS) plans to suggest to the Foreign Ministry, the Defense Ministry and state space corporation Roscosmos to make available in the public domain the catalog of Russian space satellites that are currently being monitored by domestic space control systems, Sputnik has learned from a document signed by RAS President Aleksandr Sergeyev

MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 28th January, 2020) The Russian academy of Sciences (RAS) plans to suggest to the Foreign Ministry, the Defense Ministry and state space corporation Roscosmos to make available in the public domain the catalog of Russian space satellites that are currently being monitored by domestic space control systems, Sputnik has learned from a document signed by RAS President Aleksandr Sergeyev.

According to the document adopted during a meeting of the RAS Space Council and the foreign ministry, the attendees recommend creating in 2020 "a Russian open information service on objects and events in near-Earth space based on the information capacities of Roscosmos' Automated warning system about dangerous situations in near-Earth space."

The RAS will submit respective petitions to the Foreign Ministry, Defense Ministry and Roscosmos. The latter's press service has confirmed to Sputnik that the space agency supports the recommendation.

According to the RAS document, the move is aimed at "ensuring the safety of space operations."

Among the information proposed for declassification are the space objects' orbits, launches of spacecraft, space rendezvous, accidents, the destruction of space objects, and other events. The proposed plan is to make information publicly available through media and specialized websites with an outlook of creating a separate institution � a national center for situation analysis in space � that will be tasked with information gathering about space objects and events, and related risk assessment, as well as reporting findings to the government and making it available for media publications.

All this information is kept secret at the moment and is being administered by the Russian military and individual civilian affiliates of the Central Research Institute for Machine Building. The largest catalog of Russia's space satellites is known to be administered by the Defense Ministry and includes more than 18,000 space objects with a detailed description of their orbit parameters, international identification number, size, weight, date and place of launch, and other attributes.

The decision to declassify this information, if seen through, will not be unprecedented, as, for example, the United States provides public access to data on its own space objects. The US space command's space-track.org website publishes information on nearly all of its satellites, save for military devices.