MOSCOW. Dec 6 (Interfax) - Russia is due to open a program next year to use converted intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) to launch small space satellites, an informed source told Interfax.
"This work is being conducted, but not as fast as we'd like. Actual work is expected to start next year," the source said upon being asked about the prospects of restarting to use converted ICBMs for satellite launches.
Roscosmos said in February that it was evaluating the possibility of resuming rocket launches as part of the Start 1 program.
The Start family of multipurpose aerospace systems included the four-stage Start 1 and the five-stage Start, which were designed and operated independently from one another. They were derivatives of the road-mobile Pioner and Topol missiles.
Start 1 is an environmentally friendly solid-fuel rocket designed to launch small communications, remote-sensing, and eco-monitoring satellites to low near-Earth orbits.
The first Start 1 rocket was launched from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome on March 25, 1993. The first rocket delivered to sun-synchronous orbit by a Start 1 rocket was Russia's Zeya satellite, which launched from the Svobodny Cosmodrome on March 4, 1997.