British small-satellite specialist Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd. said March 5 it has signed an agreement with Russia’s Glavkosmso and NPO Lavotchkin for the launch of the United Kingdom’s experimental TechDemoSat-1 spacecraft aboard a Soyuz rocket from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.
The satellite, based on Surrey’s SSTL-150 spacecraft platform, will carry eight experimental payloads and test new Surrey subsystem designs, the company said in a press release.
TechDemoSat-1 was partly funded by the U.K.’s Technology Strategy Board and the South East England Development Board. Following launch and early operations, the satellite will be handed over to the new Satellite Applications Catapult Center in Oxfordshire, Surrey said in the release.
