MOSCOW, June 19 (RIA Novosti) - Russia has started preparations to launch a South Korean space vehicle at the end of July from a site in northern Russia, a Space Forces spokesman said Monday.
Alexey Kuznetsov said a light Rokot carrier-rocket and a Briz-KM booster had been delivered to the Plesetsk launch site in preparation for the launch of a Kompsat-2 earth remote-sensing satellite built under a program developed by the Korean Aerospace Research Institute (KARI).
Moscow and Seoul signed an agreement in 2004 to develop Korea's civilian space launch system, and are pursuing programs to train the country's first astronaut by 2007.
The Rokot carrier-rocket is a modification of the RS-18 two-stage ballistic missile that is being gradually decommissioned from Russia's Strategic Missile Forces. The rocket is designed to put spacecraft weighing under 2 tons into near-earth orbits.
The Rokot will deploy the South Korean satellite, which has a mass of approximately 800 kg, into a circular sun-synchronous orbit at an altitude of 685 km (about 425 miles).
According to KARI researchers, the Komsat 2 satellite will provide multi-spectral, high-resolution images for earth mapping.
