Ukraine satellite launch in 2008

Ukraine is planning to launch a Sich-2 Earth remote sensing satellite into orbit in 2008, the National Space Agency said. The Sich-2 project is being developed by Ukraine's Yuzhnoye design bureau with an estimated cost of $20 million.

The development of a "Sich"-based Earth observation system and a crisis-proof space monitoring system is part of The National Space Program of Ukraine for 2007-2011, the agency said.

The spacecraft will be launched on board a Russian-Ukrainian Dnepr carrier rocket from the Baikonur space center in Kazakhstan.

The launch services will be provided by Kosmotras, a Russian-Ukrainian joint venture, which converts RS-20 (SS-18 Satan) intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBM), scrapped by Russia's Strategic Missile Forces, into Dnepr launch vehicles.

Ukraine launched its first earth remote sensing satellite, Sich- 1, in 1995, and its modernized version, Sich-1M, in 2004.

Source : http://news.trendaz.com