St Petersburg, June 15 (Agency) Russian space company SR Space said on Thursday it was working with Russian IT holding T1 to launch the country’s first private rocket by the end of the year to a height below orbit. “Russian private space company SR Space, together with Russian IT holding T1, will launch the first Russian suborbital rocket of a private company to a height of more than 100 kilometers [62 miles]. The agreement on the development of the launch vehicle and its launch was signed at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum 2023,” the company said in a statement, adding that the launch is scheduled for the end of 2023. The company added that the rocket would deliver a signal transmitter, which would send a signal to drones created by SR Space.
The company will work out interaction with unmanned aerial systems and test remote control technology, the statement read. “We decided to forego intermediate launches and focus on the finished product. Recently, we have had to accelerate and transform our business, so we are moving to commercial launches a year earlier than planned, due to the rapidly growing demand for launching spacecraft into space,” CEO of SR Space, Oleg Mansurov, said in a statement. Cooperation with T1 will make switching to domestic software possible, which will reduce the cost of developing new products, Mansurov noted.