Russia's Kosmotras has signed a $20 million contract with US company TransOrbital for the launches of a series of commercial lunar spacecraft aboard former RS-20 missile-based Dnepr boosters, starting with the flight of an Earth-orbital precursor craft, TrailBlazer, on 20 December.
The first planned lunar orbiting mission has been scheduled for October 2003, with a potential lunar landing to be attempted in late 2004.
TrailBlazer would go into orbit around the moon for three months, taking high-resolution images until it crashed on the surface. It would carry cremated human remains and other commercial cargo in a capsule designed to survive the impact.
Customers would be charged anything from $16 for a small message to $2,500 for 1g (0.04oz) of cargo and the company says it has had thousands of orders to deliver jewels, business cards and remains on the surface.
Kosmostras says it has five Dnepr rockets available for commercial missions and there is a potential to convert more than 100 further RS-20 missiles.
Meanwhile, a Kosmotras-managed Russian launch of a Kosmos 3M booster from Plestetsk on 28 November placed two satellites into 700km (435 miles) sun-synchronous orbits. One was the 90kg (200lb) AlSat 1, which is the first of a planned international constellation of disaster-monitoring satellites, led by the UK's Surrey Satellite Technology (SSTL), which built the satellite with Algeria.
The other satellite was a 90kg Russian Russian military academy student satellite, Mozhayets.
AlSat 1 is the first of a fleet of five satellites, built by SSTL in collaboration with Nigeria, Turkey and the UK, and due to be launched before the end of 2003.
It is equipped with a 32m (105ft)-resolution multispectral camera with a ground swathe coverage of 600km in a low-Earth orbit, enabling the same area to be revisited every four days.
Source: Flight International
