Russia's Kosmotras organisation launched a Dnepr booster - a former SS-18 missile - from a silo at the Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan, on 21 April. The booster carried Surrey Satellite Technology's (SSTL) 350kg UoSAT 12 Minisatellite into a 650km, 65¼-inclination orbit.
SSTL's first $5.5 million Minisatellite will demonstrate high resolution multispectral and panchromatic earth-observation payloads, low-earth orbit digital microwave communications and some novel propulsion and attitude control technologies. Kosmotras plans to conduct four to eight commercial launches a year.
Thiokol is to help market the launcher. US firm Teledesic is considering Dnepr launches for its planned communications satellite constellation.
Source: Flight International
