Dauria Aerospace Receives Investment for Imaging Satellite

The Russian state corporation Vnesheconombank has invested 60 million rubles ($1.1 million) into Dauria Satellite Technologies, which is a spinoff of the private Russian satellite company Dauria Aerospace.

The funding will help advance development of the Auriga optical remote sensing spacecraft, which will take high resolution images of the Earth.

The investment contract was signed at Startup Village on Tuesday by Dauria Aerospace general director Sergei Ivanov and VEB chairman Andrei Morozov.

Dauria’s Ivanov, for his part, noted: “The support from the Skolkovo Foundation helped us start this (Auriga) program, and VEB Innovations will allow us to confidently complete our work.”

“Space technology of the micro- and nano-classes is a new global trend in satellite-building,” Ivanov said. “If a few years ago these machines were used exclusively for science and educational purposes, then today they are capable of even more useful applications. We’ve already developed a CubSat that outperforms current models by every parameter.”

“Now we’re going along the path of boosting the size (of the satellite), but the result has opened the door to a new type of space technology, and we see massive potential in it,” Ivanov said.

Dauria Satellite Technologies, a resident of the space and telecommunications cluster, received a 150 million ruble [$2.8 million] grant from the Skolkovo Foundation in September to kick-start the Auriga project, matched by parent company Dauria Aerospace with a further 160 million ruble [$3 million] investment.