Roscosmos to launch 2 satellites, cargo ship from Baikonur

Russia’s Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos) is due to put into orbit two satellites and launch a cargo ship from the Baikonur Space Center in April, the agency’s press service said on Monday. Baikonur is located in Central Kazakhstan and Russia operates the facility under provisions of a long-term interstate agreement with that Central Asian country. The plan for space launches of unmanned vehicles includes the telecommunications spacecraft Anik-G1, the Bion-M research spacecraft for fundamental and applied studies on space biology, physiology and biotechnology, and the Progress M-19M cargo ship, which will deliver supplies to the International Space Station, Roscosmos said. Besides, a Glonass-M satellite is scheduled to take off from the Plesetsk launching facility with Roscosmos’s participation. Plesetsk,which is used for unmanned space launches only, is located in the Arkhangelsk region, the north of European Russia. On Friday, Russian Deputy Prime Ministrer Igor Shuvalov, who visited Baikonur, denied any existing disagreements between Russia and Kazakhstan on the coordination of launches from the legendary site of space launches. “We have a fully coordinated schedule of launches for the year 2013,” he said. “The schedule of manned missions for 2014-2015 is expected to be agreed upon with Kazakhstan by September 1, 2013,” he said adding the coordination of space launches usually covers a medium-term period of two or three years.