Press Kit Eurockot Launch Services - The Established Provider of Launch Services for Low Earth Orbit Satellites Eurockot Launch Services GmbH, the joint venture of EADS Astrium (51%) and Khrunichev State Research and Production Space Centre (49%) provides commercial launch services to operators of LEO (low earth orbit) satellites using the Russian Rockot launch system.  Eurockot acts as the interface to the market and is the contractual partner of the customer providing a comprehensive service at a fixed price. Eurockot`s business focus aims at providing launch services for LEO observation, scientific and communication missions. In addition, Eurockot is offering a launch capability to address earth escape and deep space missions by using an additional kick-stage  attached to the spacecraft. The three-stage Rockot is derived from the Russian SS-19 ICBM and uses the re-ignitable Breeze upper stage for precise orbit injections of small and medium-sized spacecraft weighing up to 2000 kilograms into sun-synchronous, near polar and highly inclined orbits from its launch site at Plesetsk Cosmodrome in Northern Russia. Rockot still is the only Russian small launcher programme that has seen any substantial investment into its launch facilities. This was undertaken by EADS in the late nineties at a total volume of some Euro 45 million. Eurockot has performed several successful launches with single, dual and multiple payloads into polar and sun-synchronous orbits for the commercial and institutional customers in Europe, USA, Japan, Canada and the Republic of Korea; the last three launches by Eurockot were performed for the European Space Agency (GOCE successfully  launched on March 17, 2009; SMOS and PROBA-2 successfully launched on November 02, 2009) and for USEF of Tokyo, Japan for which SERVIS-2 was successfully launched on June 02, 2010 In April 2010 Eurockot and the European Space Agency signed a contract for the combined launch of the 3 SWARM satellites in 2012 and for the Generic Launch Services of a mission to be defined in the second half of 2010. As an outlook into the near and medium term future, Eurockot expects to remain an important provider of launch services due to the declining availability of the small launchers worldwide and the fact that new launchers are not yet available. Most importantly, the earth observation market is expected to remain solid due to increasing necessity for climate research, underpinning the future demand for small launchers. A major advantage will be the continued availability of the Rockot launch system at least until 2018 which will afford Eurockot a continued market presence.

EUROCKOT Launch Services GmbH P.O. Box 28 61 46 - D-28361 Bremen Phone +49 421 539-65 01 - Fax + 49 421 539-65 00 eMail eurockot@astrium.eads.net Imprint