German firm to market Ukrainian-Russian satellite launch system
Posted on: Tuesday, 9 March 2004, 06:00 CST
Text of report by Interfax-Ukraine news agency
Kiev, 9 March: Germany's SpaceTech GmbH will provide marketing for the Ukrainian-Russian Dnepr booster rocket on the European and Far Eastern launch services markets.
The cooperation will take place under an agreement signed in February between SpaceTech GmbH and the Kosmotras international space company.
Kosmotras told Interfax-Ukraine that in line with the agreement, SpaceTech GmbH will be given exclusive rights for a number of promising projects by the European Space Agency and the German Space Agency (DKL).
The agreement also covers cooperation in developing the material part and subsystems of space devices.
The Ukrainian-Russian-Kazakh closed joint stock company Kosmotras modernizes and converts the RS-20 (SS-18 or Satan) intercontinental ballistic missile into the Dnepr booster rocket, which it uses to launch small satellites.
At present, Kosmotras is working on building an autonomous space tug adapted to the Dnepr, which will allow the use of the light Dnepr rocket carrier for launching space devices to the Moon, Mars and the libration point, and to launch a number of satellites simultaneously and place them in different orbits. Kosmotras says that this will allow the range of uses of the Dnepr system to be increased substantially.
Since 1999, it has launched 12 satellites including from Italy, Germany, Malaysia, the United Kingdom, Saudi Arabia and the United States.
Kosmotras' order book for 2004 includes launching 15 satellites into solar-synchronous orbits with the Dnepr. These include the French Demeter - a scientific satellite of France's National Centre for Space Studies (CNES) - with a group of small space devices.
According to Kosmotras, the RS-20 rocket has had 160 launches. It can be used for launching satellites in the Dnepr programme until 2020.
Another marketing partner of Kosmotras is Thiokol Propulsion of the United States.
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