MOSCOW, June 21. /TASS/. The Lavochkin Research and Production Association and Glavcosmos Launch Services have signed a contract on manufacturing, adapting and delivering the Fregat booster to the Baikonur spaceport for orbiting South Korea’s CAS500-1 Earth’s remote sensing satellite, the Lavochkin press office reported on Thursday.

"A contract on launch services signed between Glavcosmos (the launch operator) and the Korea Aerospace Research Institute (KARI) as the developer, producer and operator of various space vehicles served as the basis for concluding this agreement," the Lavochkin press office said.

CEO of Glavcosmos Launch Services Alexander Serkin earlier said that South Korean CAS500-1 and CAS500-2 Earth’s remote sensing satellites were planned to be launched in late April and late July 2020 aboard a Soyuz-2.1a carrier rocket with Fregat boosters from the Baikonur cosmodrome.

The launch period for the first mission will begin in December 2019 and end in late April 2020 and for the second mission it will start in December 2019 and end in late July 2020.

Contracts with South Korea

A contract with the Korea Aerospace Research Institute on the launch of the CAS500-1 satellite was signed by Glavcosmos and Glavcosmos Launch Services on August 17 last year. On August 18 that year, a similar contract was concluded with Korea Aerospace Industries for the launch of the CAS500-2 satellite.

A bid for the tender for the provision of launch services for two South Korean satellites was prepared in February 2017. The CAS500-1 and CAS500-2 are designed to make images of the Earth in the panchromatic and multispectral modes.

Glavcosmos Launch Services was established by decision of Russia’s State Space Agency Roscosmos for the purpose of commercializing launch services and is the launch services provider authorized to conclude commercial contracts for the launch of space vehicles aboard Soyuz-2 carrier rockets from Russian spaceports.

The Korea Aerospace Research Institute is South Korea’s basic space exploration institution.

Korea Aerospace Industries is a leading manufacturer of aircraft and helicopters in South Korea. The company has also been assigned the task to manufacture the CAS500-2 satellite.