Medvedev permits foreign specialists to visit Baikonur
MOSCOW. May 16 (Interfax) - Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev has signed an order regarding the launch of Russian and foreign satellites from the Baikonur space center in Kazakhstan.
The Russian government website reported on Friday Soyuz-2 launch vehicles with Frigate upper stages will transport to orbit Meteor-M-2, MKA-FKI (PN-2) and DX-1 (Russia), TDS-1 and UKube-1 (the UK), M3MSat (Canada), AISSat-2 (Norway) and SkySat-2 (the U.S.).
The order gives foreign specialists involved in the aforesaid missions an access to Baikonur.
"The satellites do not have military tasks, which is confirmed in writing by the customers. They are built for remote sensing, scientific research and automatic identification of maritime vessels," the website said.
Seeking to launch the aforesaid satellites, the Russian Defense Ministry "is permitted to use on commercial terms space systems and military complexes and to involve servicemen of military units [in these projects]," the order runs.