PLESETSK, Arkhangelsk Region. Feb 14 (Interfax-AVN) - The first of two Grace satellites has been delivered to the Plesetsk cosmodrome for a mid-March launch, the command post of the Russian Space Troops said on Thursday.
The two Grace satellites will be orbited by Russia's Rokot light booster rocket, an official of the post told Interfax- Military News Agency.
The satellite was delivered to Arkhangelsk from Germany by plane late on Wednesday. Later it was taken to the Pero airfield of the cosmodrome by a KA-26 Hoodlum helicopter. After that the satellite was towed to an assembly and testing shop where its tests started early on Thursday.
The second Grace will be delivered to the airfield from Arkhangelsk at 8:00 p.m. Moscow time (1700 GMT) on Thursday, the official said.
The Grace research satellites made jointly by Germany and the United States are intended for getting data and making precise global models for average and time-varying components of Earth's gravity field. After the orbiting they will move in tandem on the circumpolar orbit at the distance of 170 to 180 kilometers from each other. One of the satellites will move face forward and the other face back.
Four Rokot boosters will lift off from Plesetsk this year to orbit several Russian and foreign satellites.