Samara, Volga Region, September 7 (AVN) - The local Motorostroitel enterprise and Kuznetsov research and technical institute joined implementation of the project on putting in orbit satellites weighing up to 4t, a spokesman for the Motorostroitel administration told the Military News Agency on Friday.
The project is being developed by the Rosoboronexport state-owned arms trader and Air Launch aerospace company, the spokesman said. The satellites will be put in orbit with the help of the AN-124-100VS Condor high capacity plane as an acceleration block. The two Samara enterprises are responsible for development and production of NK-43 first-stage rocket engines. The institute will be in charge of their development and Motorostroitel of serial production.
The two-stage booster rocket was originally planned to be made by the Progress central design bureau but it concentrated on missiles production for the Russian-French Starsem joint venture, which makes commercial launches from the Kuru cosmodrome in Guiana. Another local plant, Aviakor, was ready to provide its airfield and infrastructure for those launches. Though finally the Air Launch company decided to use the airfield of the Gromov flight testing institute located in the town of Zhukovsky in the Moscow region.
Flight tests of the Air Launch aircraft and missile space-purpose system are planned for early 2002 while its commercial use is to start in 2004. The price for putting 1kg of payload in orbit with the help of Air Launch is some USD5,000 while traditional missile systems make it for USD12,000 to USD15,000.