ZHUKOVSKY, Moscow Region, August 15 (AVN) - The Rosoboronexport state-owned arms trader and Air Launch international corporation concluded an agreement at the MAKS 2001 aerospace show here on Wednesday undertaking to interact in co-operation with foreign countries, corporation president Anatoly Karpov said.
The agreement was signed by Karpov and the arms trader's first deputy director general Sergei Chemezov.
During the presentation of the space purpose aviation and missile system Karpov said that the system featured four segments, namely the Polyot two-stage booster rocket, space head containing a satellite, AN-124 plane and surface command post.
According to Karpov, the basic airfield for the system is the one owned by the Gromov flight research institute. Several airfields more will be used as well. The most complicated thing is to launch the 100t booster rocket from a plane. The missile will be ejected pneumatically and will continue the flight after the engine switches off. The Air Launch will allow to put in orbit almost any light satellite weighing up to 3t. The project is distinguished by high efficiency and its implementation is supervised by the Russian Aviation and Space Agency. The inmplementation also involves the Air Launch company, Korolev Energia missile and space corporation, Antonov aircraft research and technical enterprise and Pilyugin research and production centre of automatic instrument engineering. Project development started in 1998 while Air Launch was established in 1999.
The missile will be ejected at the altitude of eight to 10km. It might be equipped with an acceleration unit. The system's main advantages are the possibility to launch the rocket with any orbit inclination from zero to 115 degrees, the possibility to lift off from any place on the ground or the world ocean, practically complete security and environment friendliness. The cargo capacity grows 15 percent in comparison with the ground launch and the cost of payload's placement in orbit decreases 40 to 50 percent. Preparations for the launch take only 48 hours.
The work on conceptual design is mainly complete, Karpov told the Military News Agency. Currently the talks with potential investors are underway and the corporation will receive money by end of this year. The first launch is scheduled for 2003 to 2004.
At present officials consider the possibility of using the Air Launch system for space tourism, for the market of these services is starting to develop. Talks with the Energia company on production of the special spacecraft for space tourists on the basis of the Soyuz station have been a success.