Russia's Soyuz-FG carrier rocket set off from the Baikonur space
centre in Kazakhstan on 22 July 2012. The rocket will put the Russian
satellites Canopus-B and MKA-PN1, a Belarusian BKA satellite, the
Canadian ADS-1B and German TET-1 into orbit.
The Canopus-B satellite, developed by the All-Russia Research
Institute of Electromechanics, is designed for remote sensing of the
Earth. It weighs about 400 kg and will work on a circular orbit at a
height of 510 km.
The MKA-PN1 satellite, developed by Russia's NPO Lavochkin aerospace
company, will collect data to help meteorologists build models of ocean
circulation - particularly in Arctic waters along Russian shores - and
climate dynamics.
The German TET-1 satellite, a part of the
German Aerospace Center's On-Orbit Verification Program, will conduct a
test on new space technologies.
The ADS-1B satellite, built by the Com Dev aerospace company, will form part of a ship-identification satellite system.
The
satellites were earlier planned to be launched in the first half of
2012, but was postponed several times as Kazakhstan kept the decision to
let Russia use its territory for rocket launch on hold.
Russia
got the permission to launch the rocket following a meeting between
Kazakh Prime Minister Karim Massimov and his Russian counterpart Dmitry
Medvedev in June 2012.
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