Russia To Launch New Soyuz Launch Vehicle This Month

LAUNCH PAD

File image of a Soyuz rocket being launched from the Plesetsk cosmodrome.

Moscow (SPX) Oct 26, 2004
Russia's new medium launch vehicle, Soyuz M-2, will make its maiden flight on Friday from the Plesetsk cosmodrome, Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov announced on Monday.

He said the vehicle will enable Russia to launch military satellites from its own territory, the Interfax news agency reported.

Ivanov said the Soyuz M-2 will be a dual-purpose launch vehicle that permits the placing of commercial payloads in orbit.

The rocket is designed for taking satellites to low, medium, high, solar synchronized, geo-transitional and geo-stationary orbits, and also of carrying manned and cargo spacecraft to the International Space Station (ISS), said Ivanov. Soyuz M-2 offers superior carrying capacity thanks to its advanced energy parameters, he added.

The minister explained that the Soyuz M-2 boasts the latest digital control system which will increase the precision of operations.

Moreover, only 20 ground personnel are needed to launch it and just two to monitor operations rather than the 70 ground staff and40 control operators required with earlier Russian spacecraft.

ROBO SPACE

Pegasus To Loft DART

Vandenberg AFB CA (SPX) Oct 25, 2004
Orbital Sciences is in final preparations to launch the NASA's Demonstration of Autonomous Rendezvous Technology (DART) spacecraft aboard a Pegasus rocket.

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