Kosmotras international space consortium is preparing to launch the Ukrainian Sich-2 remote sensing satellite in late 2009 or early 2010 using a converted Dnepr rocket.
Kosmotras told Interfax-Ukraine that the satellite would be launched as a part of a contract signed with the National Space Agency of Ukraine.
The mass of the satellite is 350 kilograms. Dnipropetrovsk-based Yuzhnoye Bureau designed the satellite. The launch is foreseen in the national space program of Ukraine for 2008-2012.
Kosmotras is a joint project, between Russia, Ukraine, and the Kazakhstan, established in 1997. It developed and now operates a commercial expendable launch system using the Dnepr rocket. The Dnepr is a converted Soviet era SS-18 ICBM decommissioned under the START Treaty. ISC Kosmotras launches Dnepr rockets at both the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan and at the new Yasny launch facility in Dombarovskiy, Russia.
