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Russian Rocket Launches Three Satellites
A Russian booster rocket Cosmos-3M launched three satellites belonging to Russia, the United Kingdom and China respectively from Russia's Plesetsk space center Wednesday in the northern Arkhangelsk region.
The rocket blasted off from the base at 3:13 p.m. Moscow time (1213 GMT) and will send the three satellites into a solar-synchronized orbit, the Russian Strategic Missile Forces press service said.
The satellite Nadezhda (Hope), made for the Russian Defense Ministry by Polyot company based in the West Siberian city of Omsk, will join the KOSPAS-SARSAT international rescue system searching for ships and aircraft in distress.
An experimental British satellite SNAP-1, weighing nearly eight kilograms, will demonstrate the potential of using ready-made miniature electromechanical parts in satellites and training university students and graduates in space technology. It has been developed and manufactured by Surrey Satellite Technology Company jointly with Surrey University in Guildford.
The third satellite, named Tsinghua-1, weights 50 kilograms. It was manufactured by the same British company under contract with China's Qinghua University. It will be the first demonstration spacecraft of a future seven-satellite system used for global monitoring of natural disasters, communication research on a low orbit and training of students.
Both British-made satellites carry Global Position System (GPS) receivers.
This is the 400th launch of a Cosmos-3M from Plesetsk since May 15, 1967, he noted.
The Cosmos-3M is a light rocket designed for putting spacecraft into elliptical and almost circular orbits at an altitude of from 250 to 2,000 kilometers.
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