Subsidiary Of Russia's Roscosmos Plans To Launch 3 Japanese Satellites On Soyuz-2 In 2020

Three Japanese next-generation remote-sensing microsatellites are set to be launched on board the Russian Soyuz-2 carrier rocket from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in 2020, GK Launch Services, a subsidiary of Russian State Space Corporation Roscosmos, said on Tuesday

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 12th March, 2019) Three Japanese next-generation remote-sensing microsatellites are set to be launched on board the Russian Soyuz-2 carrier rocket from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in 2020, GK Launch Services, a subsidiary of Russian State Space Corporation Roscosmos, said on Tuesday.

The first Japanese satellite of this kind was launched last December from the Vostochny Cosmodrome. The three new devices, expected to reach the orbit located more than 370 miles above Earth, will become part of the AxelGlobe infrastructure, created by Japan's Axelspace and aimed at taking high-resolution pictures of the planet on a daily basis.

"Axelspace Corporation has decided to launch two more satellites of the same type (GRUS-1B and GRUS-1C). Moreover, Axelspace and the Fukui Satellite Technology & Research Association (FSTRA), which have been collaborating on the development of a 'Fukui Prefectural Satellite,' will launch it with same rocket as GRUS-1B/1C," the company said in a press release published on its official website.

The FSTRA will enjoy a higher image capturing frequency of its areas of interest thanks to the capacity shared by the GRUS-1A, GRUS-1B and GRUS-1C satellites.

The launch is scheduled for the second quarter of 2020.