MOSCOW, October 15 (RIA Novosti) – Russia will launch its first-ever spacecraft to be 100 percent funded by domestic private capital on board a Soyuz-2-1B carrier rocket in February 2014, the Skolkovo high-tech hub said Tuesday.
The DX-1 mini-satellite, designed and built by the Dauria Aerospace group, will test the equipment, technology and software to create a unified platform of small spacecraft. It will also carry an Automatic Identification System (AIS) receiver to monitor global shipping routes.
Dauria Aerospace is planning to set up a compact mission control center in Skolkovo to operate its own satellites in the future, the Skolkovo hub cited the aerospace company’s general director Sergei Ivanov as saying. According to Ivanov, Dauria has signed a contract with South Korea’s Samsung electronics manufacturer to supply equipment for the mission control center.
Dauria Aerospace is the first private space company in Russia. It was established by businessman Mikhail Kokorich in 2011 “to create low-cost solutions for space-based services,” according to the company’s website.
