CANADA'S AKJUIT Aerospace has joined forces with Russia's Scientific and Technological Center to offer satellite launches to low- polar Earth orbits by Russian Start boosters from the $300 million SpacePort Canada in Churchill, Manitoba.
Spaceport Canada is located at Churchill Research Range on the shore of Hudson Bay, the former operational sounding rocket-launch centre, and will provide a "complete, turnkey service for non-military, commercial space customers", says Siobhan Mullen, the president of Akjuit, Winnipeg, which has so far raised $100 million in first-phase financing.
The four- and five-stage Start boosters will be launched from the privately operated centre from 1998, the venture hopes. The Starts will be capable of placing payloads ranging from 110kg to 645kg into orbits ranging from 300km to 1,000km. The main market for the service will be for Earth observation, remote sensing and mobile communications.
Source: Flight International
