SEVEROMORSK, North-western Russia, September 19 (AVN) - The Akademik Keldysh research ship is expected to come to Severomorsk on September 23 - 25, a source in the Northern Fleet headquarters told the Military News Agency.
Then it will come under authority of the government's commission headed by Deputy Prime Minister Ilya Klebanov and will take part in the operation to recover bodies of the Kursk submarine crew.
According to the source, the Mir-1 and Mir-2 deep submergence vehicles of the ship will be used for examining the hull of the submarine and fragments produced by the explosion.
The ship belongs to the Atlantic department of the Pyotr Shirshov Oceanology Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Before this mission the ship was freighted for its vehicles to conduct deep water works at the area of the Titanic distress. The British firm terminated the contract and did no lodge claims to the Institute under the request of the Russian side.
The Akademik Keldysh was built in 1981 by the Finnish Hollming OY company. The displacement of the ship is 6,240 tons. It is capable of moving at a speed of up to 12.5 knots. There are 17 scientific laboratories on board the ship.
The Mir vehicle can submerge down to 6,000 metres. The oxygen stocks are enough for 72 hours, batteries are operational for 12 - 15 hours. The vehicles are equipped with precise hydrolocators, video cameras and two manipulators. The vehicles measured the radiation background in 1989 in the area of the sunken Komsomolets nuclear-powered submarine and were responsible for lifting the rescue capsule of the vessel.