MOSCOW. Dec 1 (Interfax-AVN) - A cluster launch of Russian and Belarusian Earth monitoring satellites from Baikonur may take place in late March 2012 after repeated delays, a source in the Russian aerospace sector told Interfax-AVN.
"The delivery of Russian Canopus-B and the Belarusian satellite to the spaceport is scheduled for January 31, 2012. A Soyuz-FG launch vehicle with a Fregat booster may put the satellites to orbit on March 22, 2012," he said.
First Deputy Chairman of the Belarusian National Academy of Sciences Presidium Pyotr Vityaz told Interfax-AVN earlier that the satellite control system devised by the British company SSTL had passed every autonomous test but problems kept occurring in its use jointly with the satellites.
The Russian Electro-Mechanical Research Institute made Canopus-B with the weight of about 400 kilograms. It is supposed to operate on a circular orbit of 510 kilometers.
The satellite's useful life will be five years. It will produce Earth images with a resolution from 2.1 meters (monochrome) to 10.5 meters (multi-spectral).
The Belarusian satellite is a twin of Canopus-B. They will operate together in orbit.