10 June 2004 06:51
Launch of Russian-Ukrainian rocket planned for June 29
KYIV. June 10 (Interfax) - The launch of a Russian-Ukrainian Dnepr rocket carrying 9 foreign satellites from France,
Saudi Arabia, the U.S., Italy and Russia will take place on June 29 at the Baikonur cosmodrome, a source in the
international Kosmotras space company told Interfax on Thursday.
The French DEMETER satellite, carrying a number of smaller space vehicles, will be launched into a sun-synchronized
orbit by the Dnepr. On May 25, DEMETER, ordered by the French KHEC space exploration center, was delivered to the
Baikonur launch pad.
On June 11, the SaudiSat-2, SaudiComsat-1 and SaudiComsat-2 satellites from the King Abdulaziz City for Science and
Technology in Saudi Arabia will be delivered to Baikonur.
U.S.-based Space Quest's satellites LatinSat-S, LatinSat-D, and Amsat Echo, the Italian UniSat-3 from La
Sapienza university in Rome, and AKS-1 from Aviakosmicheskye Sistemy in Russia, will be delivered on the same day.
Launch preparations are proceeding as planned.
The Ukrainian-Russian-Kazakh Kosmotras company is performing conversion work to turn SS-18 intercontinental ballistic
rockets into Dnepr launch vehicles, which are designed to launch small satellites into orbit. [RU EUROPE EEU EMRG FR SA
IT US AER] aa
[Interfax] |
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