Dnieper booster orbits eight microsatellites

Baikonur (southern Kazakhstan) witnessed the launch of the conversion Dnieper booster carrying eight foreign microsatellites, said a spokesman of the Russian Space Forces' press service.

The light spacecraft, owned by customers from France, Saudi Arabia, the USA and Italy, were deployed on the operational orbits at 10.45 Moscow time.

The Demeter spacecraft (France), weighing 125 kilograms, is designed to measure electric and magnetic signals in the high layers of atmosphere and correlate the results with the Earth's seismic and volcanic activities.

The SaudiComsat-1 and SaudiComsat-2 (Saudi Arabia) are commercial satellites weighing 12 kilograms each. The SaudiSat-2 (Saudi Arabia) is a commercial communications satellite weighing 35 kilograms. The LatinSat-C and LatinSat-D (USA) are also communications satellites weighing 15 kilograms each. The AMSat-Echo is a radioamateur communications satellite weighing 12 kilograms. The UniSat-3 (Italy) is a scientific satellite weighing 12 kilograms.