Bremen, 15 September 2003: Eurockot Launch Services of Bremen, Germany, will
now launch the Japanese SERVIS-1 satellite on 29 Oc-tober 2003 from its
facilities at Plesetsk Cosmodrome in Northern Russia using the
German-Russian Rockot launch vehicle. Rockot will deploy the spacecraft into
a sun-synchronous orbit of 1000 km alti-tude. The joint operation started on
9 September with the arrival of the satellite by cargo flight from Narita,
Japan to Archangelsk in North Russia. From there the satellite will be
transported by train to the Eurockot dedicated integration facility MIK at
Plesetsk Cosmodrome where the joint operations will take place. The launch
campaign team totals almost one hundred specialists from Japan, Russia and
Germany. The Rockot booster stages will arrive on 23 September from Moscow,
having passed their acceptance in the plant of the Khrunichev Space Center.
SERVIS-1 is the acronym for "Space Environment Reliability Verification
Integrated System" programme. This spacecraft programme is conducted by the
Institute for Unmanned Space Experiment Free Flyer (USEF) of Tokyo, Japan
under a contract by the New Energy and Industrial Technology Development
Organization (NEDO). The objective of the SERVIS-1 mission is to develop
technologies for the use of commercial off-the-shelf parts under space
environment conditions.
The Launch Service Agreement for SERVIS-1 followed negotiations which
involved Mitsui Bussan Aerospace as Japanese representatives of Eurockot.
Eurockot Launch Services GmbH is the joint venture of EADS SPACE
Transportation (51%) and Khrunichev Space Center (49%) and performs launch
services for operators of Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellites using the
flight-proven Rockot launch vehicle. Addditional launches in 2004 comprise
ESA`s CRYOSAT and the Korea Aerospace Research Institute`s KOMPSAT-2
missions.
For further information please contact
Peter Freeborn
Phone: + 49 421 539 6512
peter.freeborn@astrium-space.com
