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Satnews Daily
June 23rd, 2014

ISC Kosmotras—Largest Individual Number Of Satellites Ever Lofted (Launch)



Photo showing some of the smallsat payloads that were recently launched aboard a Dnepr launch vehicle.

Photo is courtesy of Surrey Satellite Technology, Ltd. (SSTL).

[SatNews] Dnepr operator ISC Kosmotras of Moscow launched a Ukrainian-Russian Dnepr silo-launched rocket on June 19, 2014, and successfully deployed 33 satellites that ranged in size from many hundred kilograms to less than 5km into Low Earth Orbit (LEO).
 


The smallsats are resident within the Dnepr's fairing.

Photo is courtesy of Elecnor Deimos.

Not all of the satellite owners, as of this writing, have reported on the health of their spacecraft. However, three of the bigger customers—Planet Labs of San Francisco, Elecnor Deimos of Spain and Surrey Satellite Technology of Britain—have said their satellites were in good health and in orbit.

Operating from the Yasny spaceport in southern Russia, the Dnepr rocket, which is a converted ballistic missile whose launches are managed by the Russian Space Forces, managed its second multisatellite, multicustomer mission in seven months. This June 19th launch, for 17 countries, included the 300kg Deimos 2 satellite for Spain's Deimos, a company that is moving to high-resolution from medium-resolution imaging satellites as European governments prepare to enter the market with free medium-resolution data, all collected as part of Europe's Copernicus environment-monitoring program.

The smallsats represent 17 countries on four continents.