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The demonstration launch of the SURA facility, a unique diagnostic complex of the UNN's Radiopysics Research Institute, took place on July 16 at the Lobachevsky University test site in Vasilsursk, 140 km east of Nizhny Novgorod. On that day, a special committee including Alexander Sergeev, President of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Nikolay Zavyalov, Deputy Head of the Russian Federal Nuclear Center (RFNC-VNIIEF), Director of the Institute of Nuclear and Radiation Physics, representatives of other organizations and departments visited the Radio Astronomy Base of Lobachevsky University. As UNN Rector Elena Zagaynova noted, the university successfully demonstrated to the guests the capabilities of the upgraded SURA facility, which was launched to its full capacity. During the working meeting, the guests discussed promising areas of research and cooperation on a wide range of science topics. 

The SURA facility was commissioned in 1981 for the purpose of probing the ionosphere with powerful SW radio emission. Nowadays, SURA is a multipurpose radio complex for studying the environment and near-Earth space using active radiometric methods, it is included in the List of Unique Facilities of the Russian Federation. It also belongs to the world network of specialised facilities along with EISCAT (Tromsø, Norway), HAARP and HYPAS (Alaska, USA), SPEAR (Spitsbergen Island), which is designed to study the effects of interaction of powerful radio emission with ionospheric and near-Earth plasma. SURA is the only facility located in the middle latitudes.