PLESETSK (Arkhangelsk region), January 12 (AVN) - Transport machine-building design bureau group has finished reconstructing a start complex for the Kosmos carrier rocket at Plesetsk cosmodrome, the Military News Agency learned from the bureau chief designer Gennady Biriukov.
Over 50 devices of the complex have already been modernised and due to that it is possible to use the start complex for commercial launches of the Rokot new rocket.
Rokot (based on RS-18 ballistic missile that is SS-19 in NATO classification) has been designed under the conversion programme as a light carrier rocket.
It is equipped with Briz-K special launching phase complex that makes Rocot the best light rocket in the world.
Khrunichev centre is ready for mass production of the new rocket.
It is planned to sign a contract with an American firm for nine Rocot launches in spring, the Military News Agency learned from the Khrunichev centre administration.
A contract with another western firm on orbiting two satellites has already been signed.
Several Russian experts are sure that in two or three years Rocot may become the leading carrier for small satellites.