Uzbekistan, Tashkent, 30 August / Trend , corr T. Zhukov/ Uzbekistan and Russia will sign an inter-government agreement on joint studies on Earth and outer space for peaceful purposes.
The agreement will be signed during the official visit of Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin to Uzbekistan, the press service of Academy of Sciences of Uzbekistan said. The Ambassador Plenipotentiary and Extraordinary of Russia to Uzbekistan Farit Mukhametshin said the visit will take place from 1 September to 2 September.
According to Academy of Sciences of Uzbekistan, the inter-governmental agreement will include several large projects and completion of construction of international radio-astronomy observatory (IRAO) in the mountainous plateau Suffa in Jizak province at the same time. One more project is the establishment of international observatory in Maydanak mountain in Samarqand province. The intergovernmental agreement will also include items on the joint launch of first artificial satellite of Uzbekistan in future.
The construction of observatory in Suffa plateau began in 1980s. The observatory located in height up 2, 300 meters, was equipped with mirror-like rotary RT-70radio-telescope, the largest worldwide with a diameter of 70 meters. In 1990, the construction was suspended. The 60% of the construction has not been completed yet. RT-70 radio-telescopes were expected to be used in the system of earth and outer space studies.
In 1995, an intergovernmental agreement was signed in Tashkent to found Suffa IRAO according to which Russia was to finance all construction work and to put into exploitation the facility. As a first contribution, Russia submitted project estimation and design documents, radio engineering systems and special equipment. Uzbekistan opened target financing in 2006 for the upkeep of unique scientific facility.
In addition to RT-70radio-telescope, Suffa IRAO will also include station for satellite communication, computer system for collection and processing of scientific data, and mobile residential facility to serve the personnel. The observatory will be equipped with high precision coordinate system and accurate timing service. Agreement on joint use of IRAO Suffa between Russia and Uzbekistan was signed 99 years ago with a right of future extension.
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