About 40 Foreign Small Satellites To Be Launched From Russia's Vostochny In 2019- Operator

Dozens of foreign small satellites will be launched into the orbit as an additional payload together with Russia's Meteor-M meteorological spacecraft from the Russian Vostochny space center in the Far East in 2019, the operator of Soyuz commercial launches told Sputnik on Tuesday

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 12th February, 2019) Dozens of foreign small satellites will be launched into the orbit as an additional payload together with Russia's Meteor-M meteorological spacecraft from the Russian Vostochny space center in the Far East in 2019, the operator of Soyuz commercial launches told Sputnik on Tuesday.

"As part of the upcoming Soyuz mission, it is planned to launch foreign small satellites in 2019 under commercial contacts with JSC Glavkosmos and JSC Glavkosmos Launch Services. In particular, company EXOLAUNCH GmbH intends to launch up to 40 small space vehicles," JSC Glavkosmos Launch Services said.

Earlier in the week, Mikhail Panasyuk, the head of the Skobeltsyn Institute of Nuclear Physics at Lomonosov Moscow State University, told Sputnik that the institute jointly with European countries was planning to launch several small scientific satellites together with the Meteor-M No.

2-2 hydrometeorological satellite from Vostochny in June-July.

Earlier, it was reported that the launch of the Meteor-M No.2-2 satellite would take place in either the end of the first quarter or at the beginning of the second quarter of 2019. Initially, it was scheduled for late 2018, but was postponed due to a delay in manufacturing and testing of the spacecraft.