On 20th December 2005 North-West Telecom and the North-Western Interregional Public Organization Cosmonautics Federation of Russia have summed up the results of cooperation in the expiring year. The First Vice-President of the North-Western Interregional Public Organization Cosmonautics Federation of Russia O.P. Mukhin and Space Pilot, Hero of the Soviet Union, Hero of Russia Sergey Krikalyov awarded to the top managers of North-West Telecom a pennon of the company, that has traveled with the baggage of the eleventh expedition on board the international space station.

NWT's symbolic space flight has become possible thanks to close cooperation of the company with the Cosmonautics Federation of Russia, an association including about 60 divisions in regional entities of the RF, which, in their turn unite over 330 organizations of the space industry of this country.

For several decades, cosmonautics have facilitated the development of the most advanced engineering industries of the country: physics, chemistry, electronics, teleautomatics and, of course, telecommunications. Many interesting and important high-tech designs exist thanks to the space research, e.g., satellite TV and the use of satellite channels for communication, both fixed and mobile.

It is the active use of high technologies that has led NWT to the idea of cooperation with the Cosmonautics Federation: for instance, North-West Telecom is actively developing up-to-date digital technologies using satellite communication systems: in 2004 the first stage of the project for the construction of a network of satellite communication channels in Arkhangelsk Oblast was implemented. The satellite communication network has made it possible to improve communication quality considerably, to increase the Internet throughput band, to expand the capacities of the ATM network and to meet the demand of potential lessees of data transmission channels and cellular operators in the region.   And on 10th November 2005, in the framework of developing its own network of digital satellite channels, Artelecom of Arkhangelsk Oblast, a branch of OJSC NWT, increased the total throughput of the satellite communication channels to remote districts of Arkhangelsk Oblast one and a half times.

"We value the cooperation of OJSC North-West Telecom with the Cosmonautics Federation, for everything connected with space flights have always been of high priority in Russia, making a subject of special care and attention both for the state and big commercial organizations specializing in the business of high technologies, information and communication systems," Vladimir Shumeiko, First Deputy General Manager of OJSC NWT, commented on the event.