Posted: Wed, Oct 10, 2007, 5:58 AM ET (0958 GMT)
UK smallsat manufacturer Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd announced Monday that it has signed a contract to launch two spacecraft on a Dnepr booster next year. The Demios-1 and UK-DMC2 spacecraft will be launched on a Dnepr, a converted Russian ICBM operated by Kosmotras, from a launch site in southern Russia in the fourth quarter of 2008. The two spacecraft carry advanced versions of the Earth-observing cameras carried on the first five smallsats of the Disaster Monitoring Constellation, a series of SSTL-built spacecraft funded by Algeria, China, Nigeria, Turkey, and the UK; the two new spacecraft are funded by Spain and the UK. The two spacecraft are expected to launch on the same booster as DubaiSat-1, a separate Earth observing satellite being built by South Korea for the UAE.
