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RADARSAT-2 is integrated with the Fregat upper stage
December 7, 2007
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RADARSAT-2 is shown installed on the Fregat upper stage, which is wrapped in gold-colored protection. |
RADARSAT-2 has been mated with its Fregat upper stage, which will propel Canada’s synthetic aperture radar satellite to Sun-synchronous orbit during Starsem’s next Soyuz launch from Baikonur Cosmodrome.
The re-ignitable Fregat stage is to make two burns, releasing RADARSAT-2 at a 798-km. altitude approximately 53 minutes after liftoff.
This mission is Starsem’s 20th flight, confirming its role in the commercial launch services marketplace. It follows an October 21 Starsem launch that successfully orbited four Globalstar satellites.
Liftoff of the Soyuz launcher with RADARSAT-2 is set for December 14 at 7:17 p.m. local time at Kazakhstan’s Baikonur Cosmodrome (4:17 p.m. in Moscow, 2:17 p.m. in Paris, and 8:17 a.m. Eastern Standard Time in North America).
RADARSAT-2 is Canada’s second synthetic aperture radar satellite, and it will perform marine surveillance, ice monitoring, disaster management, environmental monitoring, resource management and mapping in Canada and around the world. This 2,200-kg. platform has been designed with numerous improvements from RADARSAT-1, enabling 3-meter high resolution imaging, superior data storage and more precise measurements of spacecraft position and attitude.
Starsem’s customer for the Soyuz mission is MacDonald Dettwiler and Associates, which developed RADARSAT-2 in a unique government/industry collaboration involving the Canadian Space Agency.
See the other Feature stories on Starsem's RADARSAT-2 launch:
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