The Moscow Aviation Institute hosted the first Russian summer school for African space industry specialists.

The Moscow Aviation Institute hosted the first Russian summer school for African space industry specialists. From August 12 to 23, 18 space industry specialists from four African countries: South Africa, Angola, Mali, and Zimbabwe took part in the project.

The summer school was held within the framework of the“RAFU Summer Multidisciplinary University”and with the support of Glavkosmos JSC. MAI developed a special Basic Aerospace Course, where for two weeks foreign students looked at the specifics of complex programs based on small spacecraft from different angles, including the formation of business strategies, program management, digital design of vehicles and systems, and development of services. In addition, the participants of the summer school learned to formulate tasks related to personnel forecasting and support of space programs.

As part of the summer school, foreign specialists met with Yuri Borisov, Director General of Roscosmos State Corporation. The event was also attended by Rector of the Moscow Aviation Institute Mikhail Pogosyan and Head of Glavkosmos JSC Ilya Tarasenko.

During the meeting, Yuri Borisov spoke about Roscosmos' international programs, in particular, about the imminent launch of the first module of the Russian Orbital Station. He noted that the Russian side is open to working with representatives of African states in this area.

Yuri Borisov thanked the representatives of African countries for their great attention to Russian space. He noted that Russia is already actively cooperating with African states in various areas of the space industry. In particular, it concerns projects on implementation and realization of launch services and development and launch of satellites. The next stage is active participation in joint manned programs. According to Borisov, the experts of the Moscow Aviation Institute will help in realizing these goals as best as possible because they know exactly what the market needs in this area are.

Summarizing the results of the training, the representative of the South African Defense Ministry, General Bernard Andre Russell, thanked the Russian side for the warm welcome.

“I would like to emphasize that our delegation is very satisfied with what we have seen, and we are grateful to Russia for the experience that we can get on such platforms. I very much hope that in the future we will be able to build mutually beneficial cooperation between our countries,” said General Behrends Andre Russell.

The participants of the school were satisfied with the program and the knowledge gained, expressing interest in further building cooperation between MAI and the participating organizations.