The R&D spinoff of Dauria Aerospace, Russia’s first private space firm, is to receive 60 million rubles from the investment arm of state corporation Vnesheconombank under a deal signed Tuesday at Startup Village.
Morozov, left, and Ivanov. Photo: sk.ru
Dauria Satellite Technologies is a resident of Skolkovo’s space and telecommunications cluster and requires the money to advance its Auriga project, a new satellite that takes high-resolution images of earth for optical remote sensing.
The investment contract was signed at Startup Village on Tuesday by Dauria Aerospace general director Sergei Ivanov and VEB chairman Andrei Morozov.
“Dauria Aerospace is an active participant of the Skolkovo ecosystem,” Morozov said. “It’s important to note that creating satellites on the basis of such cutting-edge technology will allow the Russian company to enter one of the most promising and fastest-growing segments of the global commercial cosmonautics,” he added.
Dauria’s Ivanov, for his part, noted: “The support from the Skolkovo Foundation helped us start this (Auriga) program, and VEB Innovations will allow us to confidently complete our work.”
“Space technology of the micro- and nano-classes is a new global trend in satellite-building,” Ivanov said. “If a few years ago these machines were used exclusively for science and educational purposes, then today they are capable of even more useful applications. We’ve already developed a CubSat that outperforms current models by every parameter.”
“Now we’re going along the path of boosting the size (of the satellite), but the result has opened the door to a new type of space technology, and we see massive potential in it,” Ivanov said.
Dauria Satellite Technologies, a resident of the space and telecommunications cluster, received a 150 million ruble grant from the Skolkovo Foundation in September to kick-start the Auriga project, matched by parent company Dauria Aerospace with a further 160 million ruble investment.
Auriga microsatellite platform. Photo: Dauria.ru
Dauria’s website describes Auriga’s functions as follows: “The satellite will provide a survey with a resolution of up to 3 meters for the panchromatic range and up to six meters for the multispectral range. The optical system will be equipped with a set of filters to obtain visible images and with near infrared emission.”
Dauria Aerospace was named by SpaceNews magazine as one of the world’s top seven commercial operators in 2014. It sent Russia into the new space economy of private commercial operations earlier last year with the launch of two communications satellites.
VEB Innovations, meanwhile, was created by the corporation as a fund for investment in Skolkovo residents startups and other innovation-based early-stage companies around the country. The fund has invested more than 600 million rubles in 18 projects to date, making its money back in at least four projects so far.
Dozens of investment, grant and partnership agreements running into hundreds of millions of dollars are to be signed at Startup Village, Russia and Eastern Europe’s biggest innovations conference, which runs June 2-3 at the Skolkovo Innovation Center.