Russia to Launch Fleet of Mini Satellites in June

Russia will launch a cluster of about three dozen mini-satellites aboard a converted Soviet ICBM in late June as part of a Russian-Ukrainian joint project, contrary to reports that the crisis in Ukraine had jeopardized the program, a top space official said.

The satellites will be launched from a RS-20 Intercontinental Ballistic Missile, or ICBM, that has been converted into a Dnepr rocket. The Moscow-based Kosmotras International Space Company sells these rockets for commercial launches under a 1997 project by the Russian and Ukrainian governments to convert Soviet-era missiles for commercial and scientific purposes.

Earlier Russian media reports said that Ukrainian enterprises — such as Yuzhmash, which converts the missiles — could stop working with their Russian counterparts due to the ongoing crisis in east of the country.

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