It was announced on 21 August, by Roscosmos subsidiary JSC Glavkosmos, that its newly formed joint venture with ISC Kosmotras, GK Launch Services had signed contracts to provide two Soyuz 2-1A launches for South Korean manufacturers: KARI (Korea Aerospace Research Institute) and KAI (Korea Aerospace Industries Ltd). The launches will take place in 2018 and 2019, and will carry two Korean Earth Observation (EO) spacecraft, CAS500-1/-2. The first is being built by KARI with the second by KAI.
Corporate logo of new joint venture GK Launch Services. Courtesy of GK Launch Services
Whilst the two Korean EO spacecraft will be the primary payloads on their respective launches, it is expected that other – yet unidentified – payloads will be present on the launches.
