In Samara, new research institute to build small spacecraft

A brand new research institute for spacecraft engineering will be set up at Samara State Aerospace University in the Lower Volga.

A brand new research institute for spacecraft engineering will be set up in Samara, in the Lower Volga, the Samara regional government announced earlier this week following a meeting between Governor Nikolai Merkushkin and Alexander Kirilin, the CEO of the Samara-based TsSKB-Progress space rocket center. The institute will be established in one of the buildings of Samara State Aerospace University (SSAU) and is expected to not only have labs and rooms but also develop a production line to build small-sized spacecraft. The new institute is slated for launch later this year, with the spacecraft assembly line to be added in 2017. By 2020, SSAU reportedly expects to join the top-100 of the world?s Aeronautics & Mechanics university ranking. The university has plans to open six sizable new research institutes, including those of geoinformatics, information security and telecommunications, and IT...