ZHUKOVSKY, near Moscow. Aug 18 (Interfax-AVN) - Russia's Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos) and the German Aerospace Center (DLR) signed an agreement under which DLR would take part in a Russian project to develop a cosmological research satellite, an Interfax-AVN correspondent reported from the MAKS 2009 aerospace show in Zhukovsky.
DLR is to provide the eRosita telescope, ground control stations, and an onboard radio communication system for the Spektr RG satellite, designed to study subjects such as dark matter and dark energy. DLR would also supply a commercial payload for the Fregat upper stage of the Soyuz rocket that will take the satellite into space.
ERosita (extended Roentgen Survey with an Imaging Telescope Array), developed by the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics in Germany, costs 43 million euro and weighs 720 kilograms.
Spektr RG is scheduled to be launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan in 2012, but there is a possibility that a Soyuz ST rocket will carry it to orbit from the Guiana Space Center in Kourou, French Guiana.
Spektr RG is based on the Navigator platform, developed by the Lavochkin design bureau.