Russia preparing to launch Okno space surveillance system at full capacity

State tests of the Okno (Window) complex for tracking and monitoring man-made space objects in Tajikistan will take place during the summer months in the interests of the Russian aerospace defence troops. After that the facility will be put on duty, representative of the aerospace defence troops Colonel Alexey Zolotukhin told RIA Novosti.

According to open sources, the facility is part of the Russian space control system and consists of ten substations. The smaller part of them took up duty in March 2004. All the Okno component parts will start working only now. This will allow to expand the orbital range and track objects, including reconnaissance ones, at lower altitudes.

"During the summer training period, between 1 June and the end of autumn, it is planned to carry out state tests of the entire Tajikistan-located Okno optoelectronic facility for tracking space objects and to put it on duty," Zolotukhin said. In addition, new radio-technical and optoelectronic complexes of the Okno space control system will start to be built on Russian territory.

The Okno facility is located in Tajikistan at an altitude of 2.2km above sea level in the Sanglok Mountains in Pamir. The facility is meant for operative provision of information about the situation in space, classification of man-made space objects and determining their class, purpose and current condition. It allows to discover any kind of space objects at altitudes between 2,000 and 40,000km, that is up to the geostationary Earth orbit.

Okno discovers space objects at night by the sunlight that they reflect. It traces both familiar and newly-tracked space objects. The space control system was created to monitor Earth satellites and other space objects and it keeps the Main Catalogue of Space Objects.

It is the main element of an integral Russian information system of global monitoring of the situation in space. The joint system also comprises the missile attack warning system and ballistic missile defence and anti-aircraft defence forces and facilities.

Source: Voice of Russia