Tim Furniss/LONDON
The first demonstration satellite launch mission of the Russian-German Eurokot booster was successfully completed from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome, Russia on 16 May.
The Rokot booster, a converted SS-19 Stiletto two-stage intercontinental ballistic missile with a Breeze upper stage, placed two dummy satellites, Simsat 1 and 2, into a 547km circular orbit with an inclination of 86.4°. The Rokot can place up to 1,850kg into low Earth orbit (LEO).
Between 1990 and 1994, several test launches from underground silos were made to prove the concept, before the formation in 1995 of Eurokot, a joint Khrunichev/DaimlerChrysler Aerospace, commercial launcher organisation.
The Eurokot will provide launches for the LEO satellite market which is not as good an opportunity as first thought. The much promoted LEO launcher market has failed to materialise fully and Eurokot may struggle to survive. The Simsats were simulated Iridium mobile telephone communications satellites, which were to have flown on the first commercial mission. Iridium recently went bankrupt taking a lot of potential business for Eurokot with it. Iridium had 12 options to fly more dual replacement satellites on the Rokot.
Two NASA-German GRACE satellites will not be ready for launch until 2001 on the first commercial Eurokot mission. Eurokot has bookings to launch three E-SAT spacecraft each on two flights, delayed from this year to 2001.
If the Leo One communications satellite organisation materialises, launches of some Leo One satellites on the Eurokot are a possibility.
Eurokot has invested $35 million to attain full operational capability, including specially developed fuelling and neutralising equipment for the highly toxic dimethylhtydrazine and nitrogen tetraoxide fuel. It is hoped the success of the commercial demonstration mission "will attract the attention of potential clients", says Alexander Medvedev, first deputy general director of Khrunichev.
Arianespace has confirmed that is plans to become a partner in Eurokot, bringing the Rokot under its wing to complement its current launch services.
With the Ariane 4 fleet - to be phased out in about two years - and the relatively new Ariane 5, which is being upgraded and Starsem's Soyuz booster fleet, Arianespace would be able to the increase in demand for GEO launches.
Source: Flight International