MOSCOW. June 4 (Interfax-AVN) - Preparations for the launch of the Rokot rocket scheduled for June 30 are underway at the Plesetsk cosmodrome, the Khrunichev Research Center told Interfax on Wednesday.
"The launch will lift into orbit eight satellites owned by four countries. In addition, a size-and-weight model of the Monitor-E space apparatus will be carried as payload," a center representative said.
This will be this year's first commercial launch of the Rokot rocket, he said.
The center designed Rokot on the basis of the SS-19 inter- continental ballistic missile. The Breeze-KM acceleration block for the rocket was also designed by the center.
The Eurockot joint venture between the Khrunichev center and the company Astrium has been in charge of all previous Rokot launches.
The rocket will carry the following satellites: Mimoza of the Czech Republic's Academy of Sciences, Bridge of the Canadian Space Agency, QuakeSat of the United States and CUTE-1 of the Tokyo Institute of Technology. It will also launch four nanosatellites, namely, Can X-1 of the Toronto-based Institute for AeroSpace Studies, DTUSAT-1 of the Technical University of Denmark, AAU CubeSat of Aalborg University, Denmark, and Tokyo University's X-1.