26545, 26546, 26547, 26548, 26549 - TIUNGSAT 1, MEGSAT, UNISAT, SAUDISAT 1A, SAUDISAT 1B

A Russian rocket named Dnepr launched five microsatellites. The rocket is a modified RS-20 ICBM, known in the NATO countries as SS-18 and as Satan, and was launched from a silo in Baikonur at 10:05 UT on 2000 Sep 26. The five satellites are not yet matched with the International IDs, but we report them in random order as follows. TIUNGSAT 1 is a Malaysian remote sensing 50-kg satellite. The 56-kg MEGSAT is an Italian environment monitoring satellite. The 10-kg UNISAT is also an Italian satellite and would aid educational advancement. The 10-kg SAUDISAT 1A and SAUDISAT 1B are Saudi Arabian educational satellites. The initial orbits of all five were similar: period 97 min, apogee 737 km, perigee 522 km, and inclination 65 deg.

Facts in Brief

Launch Date: 2000-09-26
Launch Vehicle: Dnepr
Launch Site: Tyuratam (Baikonur Cosmodrome), Kazakhstan