Russia's NPO Mashinostroyenia will flight test its Strela launch vehicle with a dummy payload in the first half of next year, followed by the launch of its first Kondor-E-series micro-satellite. The Strela and Kondor-E will be commercially available by the end of 2002.
At the same time rival Ukrainian developer NPO Yuzhnoye is developing its Mayak launch vehicles based on technology from the Zenit 2 booster.
NPO Mash's Strela is a conversion of the SS-19 (RS-18/UR-100N) intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), more than 150 of which have been launched.
Withdrawn from service under the SALT-II arms treaty, the redundant ICBMs require minor modification to deliver a 1,500kg (3,300lb) payload into low orbits.
Like its Khrunichev Rokot competitor, the Strela uses the SS-19's first and second stages but a different third stage. The Strela uses parts of the SS-19's third stage - including the engine and trajectory control system, which is based largely on the ICBM's systems - but has a redesigned payload cone.
Priced at $9 million per launch, the Strela will fly from Baikonur and Svobodny cosmodromes.
NPO Mash is also developing the lightweight 800kg Kondor-E satellite based on the UKP universal space platform. The satellite family will include electro-optical (EO) and radar surveillance satellites. The EO satellite will be equipped with a telescope capable of being aimed at ground targets within a 1,200km (650nm) strip from a 550km high orbit, covering a 12km-wide swath. Visual spectrum images will be downloadable in realtime using a digital datalink.
Meanwhile, in Ukraine, NPO Yuzhnoye is developing the Mayak 12 as the first launcher in a new family. The Mayak 12 will be powered by two NPO Energomash RD-120 engines, with a second stage using one RD-120 and a third stage powered by a Yuzhnoye RD-8. First flight of the launcher, able to place 1,700kg into 500km, sun-synchronous orbit, is planned in about 2005. A larger Mayak 23 would be able to loft 3,000kg into geostationary transfer orbit.
Yuzhnoye says it is considering launch sites at Alcantara, Brazil and Overberg, South Africa.
Russia and the Ukraine, meanwhile, are discussing the use of the Dnepr launcher, a converted SS-18 ICBM to carry constellations of seven small satellites. Commercial operator Kosmotras will charge $6-8 million per launch. It is estimated that over 150 SS-18s are available for conversion.
Source: Flight International
