A Russian Start-1 rocket that was launched from the Svobodny space center at 11:48 a.m. Moscow time on Tuesday put a Swedish Odin-1 satellite into the intended circular, solar-synchronous orbit at an altitude of 625.7 km at 12:05 p.m. Moscow time, the press service of Russia's strategic missile forces told Interfax.
This is the fourth launch of the light Start-1 carrier rocket from Russia's newest launch center, which is located in the Far East. The rocket was launched by a strategic missile forces crew from a Topol mobile military launch system.
The Start-1 was developed on the basis of the Topol intercontinental ballistic missile under a conversion program in the early 1990s at the Kompleks-MIT research center at the Moscow Institute of Thermal Engineering.
The Odin-1 satellite will conduct astronomic and atmospheric research. Swedish experts reckon this research could shed light on the problem of ozone holes in the Earth's atmosphere. The 242-kg satellite has an expected service life of two years.
The Start-1, which is 22.9 meters long and has a maximum diameter of 1.8 meters, weighs about 50 tonnes at takeoff and can carry a payload of up to 400 kg to a low orbit of 400 to 800 km.
The Topol ICBM was first launched in February 1983. It remains on active duty in Russia's strategic missile forces.
Copyright 2001
