OREANDA-NEWS. January 16, 2009. Zenith-2SB rocket manufactured by Ukranian Yuzhny Machine Building Plant arrived at the Baikonur space port this morning. After the customs clearance, the launcher is to be stored until the Yuzhny test teams come.

Zenith-2SB with Fregat-SB upper stage (Fregat with jettisoning tanks) are to be used for orbiting Russian scientific spacecraft at the second half of 2009.

First launch of the Zenith-2SB/DM-SLB upper stage from Baikonur took place on April 28, 2008. The LV lofted Amos-3 satellite.

Zenith launch mass is more than 470t., its length is about 60m, diameter- 4.15m. Payload capacity of the LV is abot 14 t to 200km- high LEO.
Compare to Sea Launch rockets, both DM-SLB and Fregat upper stages can be used for Zenith launches from Baikonur.