NASA Refused To Help Russia Deliver Ultraviolet Telescope To ISS - Russian Researcher

NASA Refused to Help Russia Deliver Ultraviolet Telescope to ISS - Russian Researcher

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has refused to help transport the Russian ultraviolet telescope designed for studying ultra-high energy cosmic rays to the International Space Station (ISS), and the optical instrument will have to be delivered in parts on several Russian Progress spacecraft, the director of the Research Institute of Nuclear Physics at the Moscow State University told Sputnik

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 11th February, 2019) The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has refused to help transport the Russian ultraviolet telescope designed for studying ultra-high energy cosmic rays to the International Space Station (ISS), and the optical instrument will have to be delivered in parts on several Russian Progress spacecraft, the director of the Research Institute of Nuclear Physics at the Moscow State University told Sputnik.

"If the necessary funds are allocated and the technical issues are resolved, the delivery of the telescope to the ISS is expected to take place in 2022-2023," Mikhail Panasyuk said, adding however, that the telescope is too big to fit into the Progress spacecraft and will be delivered in parts.

The scientist noted that Russia suggested that the United States could bring the telescope to the ISS aboard the US Dragon spacecraft.

"However ... NASA came up with its own project POEMMA, [which envisages the launch of] two satellites with ultraviolet telescopes. But the time frame for its implementation is the end of 2020s," the director added.

The Russian ultraviolet telescope is part of the Extreme Universe Space Observatory (EUSO) project on the research into ultra-high energy cosmic rays.