Russia's last remaining space communications vessel may sink
The only space communications research vessel remaining in Russia, Cosmonaut Viktor Patsayev, turned out to be unnecessary for Roscosmos and is living out its years at the quay wall in Kaliningrad.
Deputy Alexander Pyatikop stated this at a meeting of the State Duma of the Russian Federation, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
The politician asked Sergei Dubik, Deputy General Director of Roscosmos, who was present at the meeting, about plans to restore the ship.
“Your ship, the only space communications ship “Cosmonaut Viktor Patsayev”, will soon sink in Kaliningrad. You do not service him, and he is the only one that can go to sea with operating equipment. The cost is prohibitive for Roscosmos. Will you use it? It remains the only one of the four space communications ships on the surface from the Soviet Union,” Pyatikop said.
To this, Dubik replied that the reactivation and modernization of the vessel, which has been withdrawn from the fleet since 2001, would be too expensive, and its functions are already performed by other systems.
“Yes, there is a long story with this ship, with the last one left from this flotilla. Yes, there were several ships that provided us with the necessary information on launches carried out by the Soviet Union. At present, a decision has been made to abandon the use of this group, including the last of this ship. Now other technical means are used.
The ship is a complex story; I know that many negotiations were held there, including one of the options to give it to the Ministry of Defense as an exhibit in the Patriot Park, a branch in Kaliningrad. Unfortunately, I don’t know how this story ended - this is not within my competence.
As for its restoration, it costs more than one hundred million rubles. This issue was also studied at one time, it is an expensive issue - in my opinion, it costs up to 400 million rubles to restore this ship. But from the point of view of practical application, it is not needed now,” Dubik noted.
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