Documents / FOIA release
This CIA-held JPRS translation, dated 17 March 1991, transcribes a Moscow All-Union Radio Mayak report by Valentin Bogomolov on the Plesetsk Cosmodrome and Arkhangelsk Oblast. It notes that residents sometimes mistake rocket launches for UFOs. Col. Grin describes the Informator communications satellite and an agreement to launch the Resurs spacecraft to survey mineral resources and monitor the environment. Gen. Oleynik, the cosmodrome commander, says the satellites will assess pollution, forests, soil and ozone impacts.
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# Concatenated JPRS Reports, 1991 Document 10 of 10 Arkhangelsk Oblast. 7. [Bogomolov] Here is what Gen. Oleynik, the commander of the Cosmodrome, had to say about the benefit which Arkhangelsk Oblast derives from the Cosmodrome. 8. [Begin recording] [Oleynik] The program can be adjusted to find out how man's activity is affecting the environment in Arkhangelsk Oblast, where the ecological situation has deteriorated lately. But I do not know the activities of the Cosmodrome for this. Rather it is the fault of industrial enterprises located in Arkhangelsk Oblast. Our spacecraft will be able to assess the extent of air and water pollution, the state of forestry plantations, and the state of the soil. We will also be able to measure the impact of human activities in our region on the ozone layer. 9. [Bogomolov] But isn't this very expensive? Every launch costs many millions of rubles. 10. [Oleynik] The life of man and the future of the region are more important than the money we plan to spend on this reserch. [end recording] 11. [Announcer] I wholly agree with that last remark. I remind you that the life of man is more precious than the money spent on scientific research, especially as the next generation, in other words our children, is at stake. One hopes that our small loved ones will be able to eat clean food, swim in clean rivers, and breathe clean air. If they do, maybe they will be morally better than us. One very much hopes so.
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FOIA release, from the cia-readingroom collection. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is above. The text was read from the page images by GLM-OCR; expect the odd misread word. 2 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.