• Forum
• SITREP
• Military
• WMD
• Intelligence
• Homeland Security

• Space

• Introduction
• Systems
• Facilities
• Agencies
• Countries
• Hot Documents
• News
• Reports
• Policy
• Budget
• Congress
• Links

• Public Eye

Japanese SERVIS-1 Satellite Successfully Launched by Eurockot

Bremen/Plesetsk/Tokyo, 30 October 2003

The Institute for Unmanned Space Experiment Free Flyer (USEF) of Tokyo, Japan and Eurockot Launch Services GmbH of Bremen, Germany, today announced the successful launch of the SERVIS-1 satellite at 13:43 UTC from Plesetsk Cosmodrome in Northern Russia using a ROCKOT launch vehicle. After postponement of 1 day because of weather conditions (high winds) the spacecraft was injected into a sun-synchronous orbit of 1000 km altitude. This mission follows on from the successful launch of the previous mission MOM per-formed on 30 June 2003.

SERVIS-1, the acronym for the first "Space Environment Reliability Verification Integrated System" mission, will be employed to develop technologies for the utilization of commercial off-the-shelf components in space conditions.

USEF has the responsibility to promote the SERVIS project including the devel-opment of satellite system under the auspices of Japan`s New Energy and Indus-trial Technology Development Organization (NEDO) and the Ministry of Econ-omy, Trade and Industry (METI). The contract with USEF was concluded with the support of Tokyo-based Mitsui Bussan Aerospace, the representative of Eurockot in Asia.

Eurockot Launch Services is the joint venture of EADS SPACE Transportation (51%) and Khrunichev Space Center (49%) and provides commercial launch ser-vices to operators of low earth orbit (LEO) satellites using the ROCKOT launch vehicle from dedicated facilities at Plesetsk Cosmodrome in the Archangel region of Northern Russia.

In 2004 Eurockot will provide two launches: ESA’s CryoSat satellite into a near polar orbit and the earth observation satellite KOMPSAT-2 of the Korea Aero-space Research Institute (KARI) of Taejon, Republic of Korea, which will be de-ployed into SSO. Eurockot has also submitted several proposals for launch ser-vices in Germany, Europe and Asia, which are to be decided in autumn 2003: The European Space Agency is currently conducting a launch competition for its Earth Explorer Missions comprising four satellites to be launched between 2004 and 2008. Eurockot has already won the launch contract for CryoSat, the first satellite of this series and the contract for the second satellite GOCE also awarded to Eurockot. The German Government's SARLupe constellation with five satellites is another prospect for serial launches. In Asia invitations for tender are expected for scientific and commercial remote-sensing satellite launches in the near future.

For further information please contact:

Peter Freeborn
Phone: + 49 421 539 6512
peter.freeborn@space.eads.net