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Soyuz moves to the launch pad with RADARSAT-2
December 13, 2007
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Starsem’s 20th commercial flight is ready for liftoff from Baikonur Cosmodrome with the Canadian RADARSAT-2 synthetic aperture radar imaging satellite.
The Soyuz launcher was transferred yesterday from its integration building to launch pad #6, using the Cosmodrome’s rail line infrastructure. After being raised to the vertical position, the Soyuz was secured in place and its service platforms brought into position around the vehicle.
All is set for the December 14 launch at 7:17 p.m. local time (4:17 p.m. in Moscow, 2:17 p.m. in Paris, and 8:17 a.m. Eastern Standard Time in North America).
The mission’s RADARSAT-2 payload will perform marine surveillance, ice monitoring, disaster management, environmental monitoring, resource management and mapping in Canada and around the world. This 2,200-kg. spacecraft is the second RADARSAT platform, incorporating numerous improvements from RADARSAT-1 – which was launched in 1995.
RADARSAT-2 will be placed in a Sun-synchronous orbit by Soyuz, with the launcher’s re-ignitable Fregat stage making two burns before releasing the satellite at a 798-km. altitude approximately 53 minutes after liftoff.
The RADARSAT-2 flight is Starsem’s second mission of 2007, following an October 21 launch that successfully lofted four Globalstar satellites for Globalstar, Inc.
See the other Feature stories on Starsem's RADARSAT-2 launch:
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