KIEV, August 31 (AVN) - The Russian-Ukrainian-Kazakh Kosmotras company is negotiating with two European companies on putting small satellites weighing up to 500kg in the geostationary orbit for gravitational manoeuvre around the Moon, Vladislav Solovei, director of the Kosmotras marketing service, told reporters on Friday.
The final decision on the matter will be made by the end of this year, Solovei said at the international exhibition entitled "Space Technologies in Society's Service." It is possible that four RS-20 missiles which the company has received for storage in Russia will be involved in the project. The warheads and flight tasks of those missiles will be changed so that they could be used for putting in spacecraft in the geostationary orbit. According to Russian scientists, the modernised Dnepr booster rocket with the help of a solid-propellant engine will deliver a spacecraft to the Moon and after a revolution around Earth's natural satellite the spacecraft will find itself in the tasked orbit thanks to the Moon's gravitation field. The second solid-propellant engine will be used for deceleration when entering the geostationary orbit.
According to Solovei, the project implementation will take some two years and cost almost USD7m.