BAIKONUR. June 30 (Interfax) - The Baikonur cosmodrome continues to prepare for the launch of a Soyuz-2.1a rocket with the Russian Kanopus-V-IK satellite and a cluster of small-sized satellites aboard, a cosmodrome source told Interfax.
"Preparations of the launch vehicle, the Fregat booster unit and the satellites continue as planned. The ground infrastructure, which will support the mission, is being prepared simultaneously," the source said on Friday.
"The Soyuz rocket is scheduled to be brought to the launch site in the 31st Baikonur area on July 11. Pre-flight preparations will last for three days," he said.
The Soyuz-2.1a LV with the Fregat booster unit and the satellite cluster will take off at 9:36 a.m. Moscow time on July 14.
According to the source, the rocket and the booster unit are due to transport to orbit the Kanopus-V-IK satellite and a cluster of 72 small-sized, among them TechnoSat, Corvus-BC 1, Corvus-BC 2, MKA Mayak, two MKA-N, Ecuador-UTE-YuZGU, Flying Laptop, Iskra-MAI-85, Norsat-1, Norsat-2, Wnisat-1R, Cicero-1, Cicero-2, Cicero-3, NanoACE, Flock 2k (48 vehicles), and Lemur-2 (8 vehicles).
"Many of them are micro-satellites, 10x10x10 centimeters in size," the source said.
A source in the rocket and space industry told Interfax earlier that more than 50 small-sized satellites would be delivered to orbit on July 14 together with Kanopus-V-IK.
"A Soyuz-2.1a rocket with a Fregat booster unit will bring to orbit Russia's record number of small-sized satellites, about 60, together with the Kanopus-V-IK satellite from the Baikonur cosmodrome on July 14," he said.
The previous record was set by a Dnepr launch vehicle, which inserted almost 40 satellites into orbit in 2014.
India has the world's record of the number of simultaneously delivered satellites. "Indian specialists managed to deliver over 100 small-sized satellites to orbit with one PSLV rocket from the space center on the Sriharikota Island in February," the source said.
The Russian Kanopus-V-IK satellite is designed to monitor and film wildfires of only 25 square meters. It is also tasked with man-made and natural calamity monitoring, discharges of contaminants, agricultural monitoring, and prospecting of natural resources.