At the invitation of the Skolkovo Foundation, the delegation of International Space Transport Association (ISTA) – a trade organization which promotes the development of commercial space flights – continues its visit to Russia. The delegation, headed by its spokesperson Ronald Heister, ISTA’s General Director, discussed a co-operation framework with the Skolkovo Foundation. ISTA and the Skolkovo Foundation signed a Letter of Understanding to create a specialized centre in Skolkovo for the development of suborbital space technologies.
Sergei Zhukov, Managing Director Space Cluster of the Skolkovo Foundation and cosmonaut, comments: “Commercial space flights equipment and technologies have already become a separate, fast growing branch of production. It’s about constructing re-usable space ships of a completely new type, designed for suborbital flights. This demands a large amount of new technologies and Skolkovo is ready and is getting involved in their development. For this project, we rely on the assistance of ISTA, which coordinates activities in this sphere all over the world”.
The ISTA delegation visited the Cosmonaut Training Center named after Yuri Gagarin and the Space Flights Control Center near Moscow. After fruitful talks held at the Skolkovo Foundation’s office, the delegation went to the Baikonur space launching site in Kazakhstan. The delegation witnessed the launch of piloted transport spaceship “Soyuz TMA-03M” to the International Space Station with a multinational crew on board, including Dutch astronaut Andre Kuipers, Russian cosmonaut Oleg Kononeko and US NASA astronaut Don Pettit.
About the Skolkovo Foundation
The Skolkovo Foundation for Developing a Center for Research and Commercialising New Technologies is a non-profit-making organisation created on the initiative of Dmitry Medvedev, President of the Russian Federation, in September 2010. Skolkovo is to become an innovation hub that will stimulate innovative entrepreneurship and disseminate entrepreneurial culture across the country to integrate Russia into the global economy. The aim of the foundation is to mobilise Russia’s resources in the field of contemporary applied research and to create a favorable environment for undertaking scientific developments in five priority areas of technological development: power engineering and energy efficiency, space, biomedicine, and nuclear and computer technologies. The project includes setting up the Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology (SIST), research institutes, a business incubator, a technology transfer and commercialization center, representative offices of foreign companies and R&D centers, housing and social infrastructure, and also subsequently disseminating an efficient system of operating to other regions of Russia engaged in innovation. The Skolkovo innovation center’s activities are regulated by a special law which provides its residents with special economic conditions.
www.sk.ru
About International Space Transport Association
A whole new sector is emerging and evolving around spaceflight, space training, space cargo, space hotels and many other activities: The space economy. The increasing economic value of the activities of the space economy is turning it into a consumer driven industry. This process demands the efficient functioning of an independent organisation, acknowledged by the stakeholders, which may control, support the reputation and maximize the economic value of the space industry, accomplishing this in a sustainable way. The International Space Transport Association (ISTA) is meant to fulfil these tasks with a key focus on consumer related space activities worldwide. The conviction on the enormous potential of the commercial space industry explains the ISTA commitment to secure its successful development from infancy to maturity.
www.istaspace.com