OREANDA-NEWS The first launch of the satellite on the Topol rocket in case of the resumption of the Start-1 program can take place in 2022, said on Monday the General designer of the Moscow Institute of heat engineering (MIT) Yuri Solomonov.

Previously, he reported that the launch program can be resumed in 2020.

"At the beginning of 2022," said Solomon in an interview, answering the question, when can take place the first launch.

According to this information, for the launch of satellites into orbit under the program "Start-1" will be used removed from combat duty strategic missiles "poplar". According to estimates Solomon, these media, write-off, there are still "dozens".

The General designer noted that the order of the government on the relevant works already exists, but as works on this subject were not conducted about 10 years, they need to be "reanimated". This will require separate development work.

From 1993 to 2006, seven launches of launch vehicles "Start — 1", created on the basis of Topol missiles, were carried out from the mobile launcher from Plesetsk and Svobodny (now-Vostochny) cosmodromes. Of these, six were successful. To carry out the launches, the rocket required the modernization of the combat version into a space carrier.

Until recently, the Dnepr launch vehicle, based on the Intercontinental ballistic missile RS-20, better known by NATO's classification as "Satan", was in operation. In total, 22 launches were made between 1999 and 2015, 21 of them were successful.

In addition, to date, another conversion rocket is used — Rokot, which is a civilian version of the RS-18 rocket (according to the NATO classification - Stiletto). To "Roar" there were three missile launch "Arrow," created by minimal change RS-18. Currently, the possibility of creating a project "Rokot-2", in which instead of the Ukrainian control system it is planned to use the Russian one, is being considered.

Topol is a Russian mobile ground-based strategic missile system with a three-stage solid-propellant Intercontinental ballistic missile of megaton class.