Starsem signed a contract with Canada’s MacDonald Dettwiler and Associates Ltd, to launch the Radarsat-2 satellite aboard a Soyuz rocket, Starsem announced Jan. 9. The spacecraft, a replacement for Canada’s Radarsat-1 radar imagery satellite, is scheduled for a December launch from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

Starsem is a consortium of Arianespace, EADS, the Russian Federal Space Agency and the Samara Space Center that markets launches of the Russian Soyuz vehicle.