"We have made considerable progress in that field-there are pioneer communications satellites of the Express AM class. Some have been orbited by now, others still to be launched," he said.
The satellites will enable Siberia and the Russian Far East to receive 15 television channels, as in European Russia, instead of present-day two or three, Perminov said.
The program also envisages distant Earth sounding for mapping and environment monitoring purposes. Program efforts will spectacularly promote geological prospecting, enhance weather forecast precision, and come as major help to fundamental space research, much of it in compliance with related international agreements, manned space flights, in particular, the International Space Station, to comply with international agreements that concern its performance.
Further progress of Russian space efforts is to pursue pivotal national goals. Among these, Perminov highlighted building up the defense potential and speeding up economic modernization.
To hit targets the federal President and Cabinet have posed, Russia is to launch, before 2008, 26 spacecraft that will engage in priority space effort fields, say Roscosmos experts.
Russia is attaching the greatest attention of all to the GLONASS satellite navigation program. Vladislav Putilin, Deputy Minister of Economic Development and Trade, regards it as the most successful of all available target programs.
