Spectrum-UV (Telescope World Space Observatory)

Spectrum-UV (World Space Observatory - Ultraviolet, abbreviated as VKO-UV) is a Russian space telescope designed to obtain images and spectroscopy in a section of the electromagnetic spectrum inaccessible to ground instruments - ultraviolet (UV, 100-320 nm).

The third of the Spektr series devices (the first was launched on July 18, 2011, Spektr-R, the second was launched on July 13, 2019, Spektr-RG, and the fourth was Spektr-M). The closest competitor of Spectra-UV, the Hubble Space Telescope, is completing its work in orbit in the near future, and work on a large ultraviolet telescope, which takes at least 10 years, has not been started by any space agency except the Russian one at the beginning of 2023.

It is assumed that Specter-UV will investigate explosive processes in galaxies, stellar and compact objects, the birth of stars and planetary systems, as well as processes occurring in the atmospheres of planets, in comets and other bodies of the solar system. In addition, it is planned to observe already discovered exoplanets in order to study their atmospheres and detect biomarkers, that is, signs of life.

The launch of Spectra-UV is planned on the Angara-A5M rocket with an upper stage of the DM type from the Vostochny cosmodrome after 2025. The device will be placed in a geosynchronous orbit with an altitude of about 35.8 thousand kilometers, it will transmit data at the space communications station in Bear Lakes near Moscow, in Dubna and near Kalyazin. The period of active work is five years.

2023: Spain and Japan did not refuse to participate in the Russian telescope project

Japanese and Spanish scientists have not yet officially refused to participate in the Russian project of the Spektr-UV orbital ultraviolet observatory, RIA Novosti was told in Roscosmos in January 2023.

Earlier, the chief designer of the project, Sergei Shostak, said that the participation of Japan and Spain in the creation of Spectra-UV remains an open question, but the Institute of Astronomy of the Russian Academy of Sciences has already worked to replace the elements of scientific instruments that these countries wanted to supply with domestic ones.

Earlier it was reported that Spain will supply a receiver of radiation from the far ultraviolet channel and a set of filters to the block of field cameras, and will also take part in the creation of a ground-based scientific complex. Japan was supposed to make an ultraviolet spectrograph for the telescope, with which it would be possible to observe exoplanets.