Space X has intercepted a contract for the launch of the Spanish satellite from Russia
The American company Space X was awarded a contract to launch the Spanish satellite PAZ, reported on the website of the Spanish communications company Hisdesat. Earlier it was planned that the satellite will be launched by Russia, but the contract was canceled.
As reported by El Pais, the satellite launch was supposed to be produced by the rocket “Dnepr” was developed jointly by Ukraine and Russia. However, in 2015, Russia suspended launches of this launch vehicle. Despite the fact that Russia reaffirmed its commitment to launching a satellite, Hisdesat chose to break the contract.
The company gave a contract to launch an American private company Space X. In the message Hisdesat says that the launch will take place in the last quarter of 2017 with the launch pad at Vandenberg, California. The launch will be made with the carrier rocket Falcon 9.
The PAZ satellite is designed to monitor the earth’s surface and monitoring weather conditions. At the same time, Spanish newspaper El Pais PAZ calls “the first Spanish spy satellite”. Its development was a division of Airbus group — Airbus Defence and Space responsible for the creation of defense and aerospace products.
Earlier, on 28 February it became known that the Space X plans to launch space tourists to the moon in 2018. According to the company, the candidates for space flight have already paid for a significant part of the cost of travel.