DUSHANBE, November 20, Asia-Plus — An official ceremony of signing of protocol on exchange of documents on ratification of the Tajik-Russian government-government agreement on transferring of the space-surveillance center in Norak to jurisdiction of the Russian Federation was signed in Dushanbe on Friday, November 16, according to the Tajik MFA.
Tajik Foreign Minister Talbak Nazarov and Russian Ambassador to Tajikistan Ramazan Abdulatipov signed the document.
The agreement on the space-surveillance center was signed in Dushanbe on October 16, 2006, and the Majlisi Namoyandagon (Tajikistan’s lower chamber of parliament ratified the document on January 25,2005 and Russia’s State Duma on July 3, 2005.
In exchange for the space-surveillance center Okno (Window) in Norak Russia wrote off $250 million of Tajik debt.
The space-surveillance complex, located at an altitude of 2,200 meters in the mountain area of Sanglokh near the Tajik eastern city of Norak, was commissioned in March 2004. It is a unique space-monitoring installation capable of tracking space objects orbiting the Earth at altitudes 2,000-40,000 kilometers. The Okno system is fully automated. It performs autonomous monitoring sessions at night in real time, constantly processing information about detected space objects. Detection is passive, based on reflection of the sun”s rays from the surface of space objects, which allows it to consume a small amount of energy.
