Russian Launch Countdown Resumes Without Canada

摘要

The launch of a Russian Soyuz rocket from which a Canadian satellite was removed in protest against Russia's actions in Ukraine has been rescheduled for June 28 and will carry U.S., British and Norwegian satellites, according to the Russian space agency, Roscosmos. The builder of one of the British satellites, Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd., confirmed May 23 that its TechDemoSat-1, built for the British government and carrying eight separate experiment payloads, is now preparing for a June 28 launch from Russia's Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Liftoff of the Soyuz rocket, equipped with a Fregat restartable upper stage, had been pending the readiness of its main passenger, Russia's Meteor-M2 meteorological satellite, designed to operate in a near-polar low Earth orbit.