OREANDA-NEWS. April 6, 2009. Ruslan airplane delivered Fregat-SB upper stage to Baikonur today. The upper stage is intended for launch with the Zenith-3M rocket carrier. This assembly is planned to orbit Spectr-R international orbital astophysical observatory.

The upper stage will be headed for further testing at site 31. First stage of verification implies integrated tests of the Zenith/upper stage with "dry" roll-out to the launch pad. Thus, the upper stage will be fully validated.

Zenith-3M/Fregat-SB/Spectr-R prelaunch processing will be carried out at the second half of 2009. The launch is planned in late 2009.Fregat-SB is a modified version of the Fregat upper stage produced by Lavochkin R&D company. The main difference is in additional propellant tanks to be separated after evacuation. Installation of these tanks provided the opportunity to increase payload capacity. Fregat-SB will be applied in Soyuz and Zenith rockets.