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Rediff.com  » News » Russia tests mini-spacecraft successfully

Russia tests mini-spacecraft successfully

October 07, 2005 18:16 IST
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Russia on Friday successfully test-launched a mini-shuttle spacecraft on a sea-based ballistic missile, Russian news agencies reported.

The Demonstrator spacecraft, which was launched on a converted Volna booster rocket from the Borisoglebsk nuclear submarine in the Barents Sea, landed in the Kura test range on Russia's far east Kamchatka Peninsula.

Searchers have not yet found the spacecraft, the Interfax news agency reported, citing the Lavochkin space design bureau. The spacecraft is to be folded up and transported to the international space station on a Russian progress cargo ship, and is to be used to bring cargoes back to earth, the ITAR-Tass news agency reported.

It was built on contract for the European Space Agency and the German firm EADS ST, Interfax said.

Three previous launches failed, ITAR-Tass said, but this time the Demonstrator launched successfully. "The unfolding and inflating system worked successfully in space, the craft's heat protection worked in the dense layers of the atmosphere," ITAR-Tass quoted the Russian space agency as saying.

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