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Russian government allows using military infrastructure for foreign satellite launches

The Soyuz-2 carrier rocket’s launch is scheduled for March 20; together with the South Korean satellite, the Russian launch vehicle will orbit 37 satellites from 18 countries

MOSCOW, March 12. /TASS/. The Russian government has allowed using military space systems and facilities for launching a Soyuz-2 carrier rocket with foreign satellites from the Baikonur spaceport, according to the data posted on the government’s legal information web portal on Friday.

"To allow the Defense Ministry of Russia to use on a contractual basis military space systems and facilities and involve the personnel of military units to provide for the launch of a CAS500-1 Earth’s remote sensing satellite (the Republic of Korea) and the hosted payload by a Soyuz-2 (stage 1a) carrier rocket with a Fregat booster from the Baikonur Cosmodrome," the resolution signed by Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin says.

The rocket’s launch is scheduled for March 20. Together with the South Korean satellite, the Russian launch vehicle will orbit 37 satellites from 18 countries. In particular, it will orbit Japan’s ELSA-d space junk removal craft, the Japanese GRUS Earth’s remote sensing micro-satellites, Saudi Arabia’s NAJM-1 Earth imaging and communications small satellite, communications satellites of Berlin Technical University and others.

On March 20, the Soyuz carrier rocket will also put into orbit the first D33 satellite of Russia’s Higher School of Economics National Research University, a CubeSat developed by the Sirius Center and the Higher School of Economics National Research University and also an OrbiCraft-Zorky satellite belonging to the Russian private space company Sputnix.

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