Russian Rocket Delivers Ukrainian Satellites to Orbit

Text of report by Russian news agency ITAR-TASS

Moscow, 24 December: Russian Space Troops at the Plesetsk space launch site today at 1440 hours Moscow time [1140 gmt] carried out the launch of a Tsiklon-3 launch vehicle carrying two Russian- Ukrainian spacecraft – the Sich-1M satellite and the KS5MF2 micro- satellite. An ITAR-TASS correspondent learnt from the press service of the Space Troops that “pre-launch operations with the launch vehicle went normally and the launch of the satellites for the remote sensing of the Earth was carried out successfully”.

An ITAR-TASS correspondent learnt at the Space Research Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences that the scientists have installed on Sich-1M “an ultra high frequency radiometer – the first in the world – which will capture images of the Earth in a multitude of bands and parts of the spectrum”. With the help of the radiometer created by Russian specialists, the scientists can receive information about processes that are of interest to them in the atmosphere, in the ocean and on land.

“The information transmitted from the satellite makes it possible to give timely warnings about forest fires, slides of glaciers and other natural disasters as well as fight their consequences. The sensing data will be used in geology, agriculture and other areas. There is one more purpose for this spacecraft – the discovery of plantations of cannabis and opium poppies in any region of the world,” the agency source said.

The KS5MF2 micro-satellite is designed to receive images of certain sections of the Earth’s territory in the visible optical spectrum in the interest of resolving economic and scientific tasks. The micro-satellite will also be used to develop promising technologies of sensing the Earth.

Until it reaches orbit, the launch vehicle and satellites will be controlled by the Russian Mission Control Centre and then the satellites will be handed over to the Ukrainian space agency.

The launch of the Tsiklon-3 launch vehicle from the northern space launch site was observed there by Russian Defence Minister Sergey Ivanov and Economic Development Minister German Gref.

[RIA-Novosti news agency, Moscow, in Russian 1143 gmt 24 Dec 04 reported the following:

"The Tsiklon-3 launch vehicle, launched from the Plesetsk space launch site at 1429 [1129 gmt], successfully delivered the Sich-1M satellite to the designated orbit, RIA-Novosti learnt from the head of the No 1 centre for testing and implementing space facilities, Col Aleksandr Shevkunov.

“Along with the satellite, a KS5MF-2 micro-satellite, which will eventually separate from the spacecraft, was delivered to orbit.”

Interfax-AVN military news agency web site, Moscow, in English 1245 gmt 24 Dec 04 reported the following:

“The Plesetsk space launch site will be used for launching civilian as well as defence satellites, Russian Defence Minister Sergey Ivanov told the Space Troops crew who launched a Tsiklon-3 launch vehicle earlier on Friday.”]