[FPSPACE] talks on potential space center in Cuba

[Peter Pesavento]

>From Reuters

 

http://www.reuters.com/article/scienceNews/idUSLH47851920080917?feedType=RSS
<http://www.reuters.com/article/scienceNews/idUSLH47851920080917?feedType=RS
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Russia to help Cuba build space center


Wed Sep 17, 2008 9:34am EDT

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Moscow is ready to help Cuba develop its own space
center, Russia's space agency chief said on Wednesday after talks in Caracas
with Venezuelan and Cuban officials, Itar-Tass news agency reported.

Russia has stepped up efforts to develop closer links with both countries,
which are ideological enemies of Washington, including sending Russian
strategic bombers on a mission to Venezuela this month.

"We have held preliminary discussions about the possibility of creating a
space center in Cuba with our help," the chief of Russia's Federal Space
Agency Anatoly Perminov was quoted as saying by Itar-Tass in Caracas.

"With our Cuban colleagues, we discussed the possibilities of joint use of
space equipment ... and the joint use of space communications systems,"
Perminov was quoted as saying.

Russian Deputy Prime Minister Igor Sechin visited Cuba this week and
together with representatives from several Russian ministries and large
Russian companies looked at ways to help Cuba recover from hurricanes Gustav
and Ike.

Renewed Russian links to the Caribbean island will stir memories in
Washington of the 1962 Cuban missile crisis when the United States and
Soviet Union almost went to war over Soviet missile bases on Cuba, which is
90 miles from U.S. shores.

Russian officials have said they want to renew Cuban ties that were
neglected after the Soviet Union's collapse.

 

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