KYIV. Sept 30 (Interfax-AVN) - Preparations have been started for launching a Russian-Ukrainian Dnepr space rocket with a Thai remote sensing satellite THEOS on board from the launch pad of the Yasnenskaya base belonging to the Russian Strategic Rocket Forces (RVSN) in the Orenburg region.
The launch is set for 7:35 a.m. Moscow time on October 1, the Yuzhnoye design bureau located in Dnipropetrovsk, Ukraine, told Interfax.
Former Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma and Russian Ambassador to Ukraine Viktor Chernomyrdin are expected to attend the launch, an industry source told Interfax.
The THEOS' launch to a heliosynchronous orbit on board the Dnepr rocket, which is a modernized version of the intercontinental ballistic missile RS-20 Voyevoda (or SS-18 Satan, according to NATO classification) from the Yasnenskaya base launch pad has earlier been postponed several times because of restrictions imposed by Kazakhstan.
The Ukrainian-Russian-Kazakh company Kosmotras is engaged in modernizing RS-20s into Dnepr space rockets and launching small satellites on board them.
The company's contract portfolio for 2008 includes three Dnepr launches to put into orbit the THEOS satellite under a contract with Thailand, five micro-satellites for a commercial space group to be operated by Germany's RapidEye AG under a contract with the British company Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd (SSTL), and a DubaiSat satellite under a contract with the United Arab Emirates.
Kosmotras has performed 10 launches and put into orbit 39 satellites since 1999 under contracts with space agencies and companies from Italy, Germany, Malaysia, the United Kingdom, Saudi Arabia, the U.S., Japan, France and other countries.
The launch of the satellite for RapidEye AG took place at the Baikonur space center on August 29.