The Dnepr rocket with the Swedish Prisma satellite and French Picard solar research satellites has successfully launched from the Yasny launch centre in southern Russia.
A Dnepr rocket with the Prisma satellite and French Picard solar research satellite s scheduled to launch from an underground silo at the Yasny military base in the Orenburg region of southern Russia at 14:42 GMT, 15th June, 2010.
Prisma is a Swedish satellite project designed to develop and qualify new technology which is necessary for future research projects. Many of these projects include formation flight and rendezvous, i.e. multiple spacecraft can communicate and interact with each other with high precision with respect to geometry and relative distances. Already, the ongoing development of several new Swedish and foreign technologies may provide new opportunities or streamline future space projects. Because space is still expensive and fraught with high risks requires that new technology is being examined in space before it is accepted as reliable. Sweden has taken the initiative to develop a missile test laboratory in small scale - robotic Prisma satellites. Read more (Swedish)