2 launches from Baikonur spaceport scheduled for July

BAIKONUR. KAZINFORM The works related to the launching campaigns for commercial launches and the International Space Station program are in progress at the Baikonur space port, Kazinform correspondent reports.

Soyuz-2.1a rocket takeoff with the Fregat upper stage for launching the Russian Earth remote sensing system satellite Kanopus-V-IK and a cluster of small satellites is scheduled for July 14.

The specialists of VNIIEM Corporation conducted Kanopus-V-IK solar array deployment tests. The autonomous preparation of small spacecrafts to be launched in the configuration of the hosted payload along with Kanopus-V-IK spacecraft has been completed. The foreign customers have confirmed their readiness for the final integration of satellites with Fregat upper-stage rocket adapter, according to the Roskosmos press service.

It is planned that Soyuz MC-05 manned crew transfer vehicle is to be launched from the Baikonur site with the crew of another expedition to the International Space Station on July 28, 2017.

According to the information of Energia Russian Space Corporation, specialists of tge corporation and Yuzhny Space Center have started the final stage of the preparatory work, i.e. tightness testing. Soyuz MS-05 has been loaded into a vacuum chamber for leak testing.