The Zeya spacecraft was placed into orbit on 4 March by a Start 1 Rocket after the first lift-off from Russia's new Svobodny commercial-launch centre in the eastern Amur region.
The 87kg military-research satellite was placed into a Sun-synchronous, 98¹-inclination, 426km-466km orbit by the five-stage modified SS-25 Topol strategic missile on its second space mission.
The launch was organised by Russian company STC Komplex, which has a contract to launch the US-built Earth Watch satellite later this year.
Another Start model, a six-stage version, was flown on a failed mission in 1995.
The Rokot, another former military missile, is scheduled to be launched from Svobodny in 1998. Launches of a new heavy-lift rocket, the Angara, are also planned for 2000. Two Angara launch pads are planned for the site.
Svobodny, which complements other satellite-launch bases in Plesetsk and Baikonur in Kazakhstan, is a former top-secret strategic nuclear-missile base, called Svobodny-18. It is situated 860km (530 miles) west of Khabarovsk, 4,000km east of Moscow and 100km from the Chinese border, and was equipped with 60 SS-11 missile silos, which were last used in 1973.
It may replace Baikonur when Russia's lease of the Kazakhstan base ends. During difficult negotiations with Kazakhstan over the leasing, Russia proposed the use of Svobodny as an alternative site, in a move seen my many as a negotiating ploy.
Russian president Boris Yeltsin, however, approved development of the centre in 1996.
Source: Flight International
