MOSCOW, November 20 (AVN) - Russia's Kosmos-3M light booster rocket carrier and US Quick Bird satellite are delivered to the Plesetsk state space testing ground in the northern Russian Arkhangelsk region and mounted on Launcher 1 of Launching Pad 132, a source in the Strategic Missile Forces (SMF) Staff told the Military News Agency on Monday.
SMF space crews are currently testing the booster's power and control systems, the source said. The fuelling of the rocket will start at 19.00 Moscow time (1600 GMT), and the launch is planned for 1.00 Moscow time on Tuesday (2200 GMT on Monday).
Kosmos-3M was made by the Polyot production enterprise located in the south-western Siberian city of Omsk. It is used to put spacecraft into elliptic and near-circular orbits with the height of 250 to 1,700 km. Particularly, the rocket is used to launch low-orbit navigation and communication satellites, as well as the KOSPAS-SARSAT spacecraft. As many as 400 successful launches of such rockets have taken place.