The Ministry of Internal Affairs discovered theft when creating a competitor of the Hubble telescope

The Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia opened a case on the fact of theft when creating a T-170M telescope, Kommersant newspaper reports on Thursday. The device, according to the plan of its creators, was supposed to compete with the American telescope Hubble.

According to the publication, the charges are connected with the scientific enterprise Incos, which was supposed to carry out experimental work on the creation of the main mirror of the telescope. For this, back in 2012, the Institute of Astronomy of the Russian Academy of Sciences signed contracts with a subcontractor worth about thirty million rubles.

However, according to the investigation, the enterprise did not carry out any work - almost the entire amount in the laboratory was supposedly abducted, and most importantly, the mirror of the telescope was made by the employees of the Institute of Astronomy. Thus, a fictitious scheme of work was created, and the Russian budget lost almost the entire cost of the contract, Kommersant writes.

It is reported that there are no specific suspects yet in the case file. But the sources of the publication in the Ministry of Internal Affairs believe that they will appear in the near future.

The T-170M telescope should become part of the "World Space Observatory-ultraviolet" complex. Using the project, scientists want to make a breakthrough in Russian astronomy: the complex will provide new opportunities for the study of various space bodies. The telescope is called a potential competitor to the famous American telescope Hubble .

The astronomers thought over the system in the early 90s, its launch was originally planned for 1997. But last summer, Roscosmos postponed the expected date of start of the spacecraft for 2024.