VLADIMIR KARNOZOV / MOSCOW
Eurockot venture begins to pay off $40 million investment with first commercial flight
The Rockot lightweight launch vehicle, using a retired SS-19 Stiletto intercontinental ballistic missile as the first stage and the Breeze-KM upper stage, successfully performed its first commercial mission on 17 March.
The vehicle deployed two Astrium Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (Grace) scientific satellites for NASA and German aerospace organisation DLR. The 480kg (1,050lb) Grace satellites, both launched into 500km (310 mile) polar orbits, will map the Earth's gravity field. With a precision 100 times more exact than previous satellites, the Grace craft will contribute to global climate research.
The launch, which was carried out by Russia's space forces from the Plesetsk cosmodrome in northern Russia, follows four test flights. Eurockot, a joint venture between Astrium and Khrunichev, has orders to launch two Iridium satellites and two scientific satellites in June, and the Japanese Service-1 next year. In addition, the Rockot will deploy "a non-commercial 650kg satellite for monitoring and probing" in October.
Eurockot has invested $40 million in the Rockot programme, half of which went on developing the launch vehicle, including a new nose cone, a digital flight control system and the Breeze-KM. The other half was invested in infrastructure at Plesetsk, a former military launch site. Plesetsk will also be used for the Russian Angara launch vehicles. "The infrastructure is 99% ready," says Khrunichev general director and general designer Aleksandr Medvedev.
Medvedev says Eurockot wants two to three launches a year at first, rising to six by 2005. "We believe demand will be boosted by countries from Asia and elsewhere wishing to have their own lightweight satellites for communications, monitoring and probing," he says.
Source: Flight International
