ROSKOSMOS APPROVES LAUNCHES PLAN FOR 2005 SECOND QUARTER

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MOSCOW, April 7 (RIA Novosti) - Roskosmos (the Russian Space Agency) has approved the launches plan for the second quarter of 2005 within the framework of Russia's Federal Space Program.

"In April-June it is planned to launch eleven carrier rockets and put 20 spacecraft in the near-Earth orbit. For that, the crews of Roskosmos and the combat crews of the Space Troops will make preparations and launches of the carrier rockets Soyuz, Proton, RS-20, Rokot and others from Baikonur (Russian cosmodrome in Kazakhstan) and Plesetsk (Russia's northernmost cosmodrome), as well as by the forces and means of the Defense Ministry", official spokesman for Roskosmos Vyacheslav Davidenko has told RIA Novosti.

In order to change the crew of the International Space Station, it is planned to launch the spaceship Soyuz TMA with the eleventh live-in expedition of Russian cosmonaut Sergei Krikalev and NASA astronaut John Phillips. They will be accompanied by astronaut of the European Space Agency Roberto Vittori, who will spend a week in the ISS. "The launch will be made from Baikonur at 04:46, Moscow time, on April 15 by the Russian launch vehicle Soyuz-FG", the Roskosmos spokesman said.

For an on-board experiment in the manufacture of materials and biological preparations for industry and science, Roskosmos will orbit the spacecraft Foton-M. It will be injected into orbit from Baikonur by a Soyuz, scheduled to be launched on May 31.

On May 21 a heavy Proton-M launch vehicle will be launched from Baikonur. It will orbit the craft DirecTV-8, intended for radio and television broadcasting for the continental United States, Alaska and the Hawaii.

On May 27 ten small spacecraft will be launched from Baikonur by one carrier rocket RS-20.

For the ISS crew, a Russian space truck Progress will be launched from Baikonur on June 10.

Another two launches from Baikonur are planned: on June 24 Roskosmos crews will start up a Proton carrier rocket with the spacecraft for communication, television and radio broadcasting Ekspess-AM3. On June 17 the telecommunication satellite Galaxy-14 will be put in orbit the Soyuz-FG carrier rocket.

The Rokot launch vehicle with the Briz-KM acceleration unit will put in orbit the spacecraft Monitor-E in the interests of environmental monitoring, emergency situations management, study of the Earth's natural resources and economic activities. The launch is planned for June 30 from Plesetsk.

Of great scientific interest is the launch of the spacecraft Solar Sail, scheduled for May 20. The space sail of eight petals of a 600-square meter total area will, driven by the solar wind, move the spacecraft. Low in cost but efficient in power and load-carrying capacity, the new system will later on make possible interplanetary missions. It is the first experiment with an entirely new spacecraft and also private funding for a space project.

Roskosmos has stressed that the launch dates will be specified upon readiness of the technical and launch systems, carrier rockets and spacecraft, as well as in the customers' interests.

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