Resurs-F
When Soviet officials decided to make the Photon spacecraft available to foreign commercial users, the similar Resurs-F1 Earth observation spacecraft was also offered for payloads of 15-30 kg. Working through the Kayser-Threde firm, several European sponsors have taken advantage of these more frequent flight opportunities: COSIMA 2 (Crystallization of Organic Substances in Microgravity for Application) on Resurs-F 5 (September, 1989), COSIMA 3 on Resurs-F 6 (May, 1990), and CASIMIR (Catalyst Studies for Industry through Microgravity Research) on Resurs-F 9 (September,1990). Although mission durations can be increased to 25 days as compared to the 16 day flights of Photon, Resurs-F1 spacecraft are subject to attitude control adjustments and orbital maneuvers which may have a deleterious effect on microgravity experiments. Despite contracts for future microgravity experiments, none of the three Resurs-F missions of 1993-1994 carried such secondary payloads (Reference 798).
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