Canada suspends shipping M3MSat to Russia due to situation in Ukraine
MOSCOW. April 25 (Interfax-AVN) - Canada has suspended preparations for sending the M3Msat micro-satellite to Russia due to the situation in Ukraine, U.S. space expert Peter de Selding said.
"Canadian govt stops shipment of M3M satellite to Kazakhstan for June Soyuz launch, citing Russia's actions in Ukraine," Selding twitted.
It is planned to launch M3Msat - as well as MKA-PN2 (Relek), Ukube-1, SkySat-2, TechDemoSat-1, AISSat-2, DX-1, Baumanets-2 and Venta-1 micro-satellites - as the associated load with the Meteor-M No. 2 spacecraft. It is planned to carry out the launch with the Soyuz-2.1b rocket from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on June 19.
M3Msat is maritime monitoring and transmission satellite. The mission is financed jointly by the Defense Research and Development Canada (DRDC) and Canadian Space Agency.