Russia's SS-18 missiles seemed scarier when they were pointed at Washington and Wichita, Kans. Like so much else in the onetime land of Lenin, however, the big guns have gone Big Business. Last week the U.S.-based ONE STOP SATELLITE SOLUTIONS (O.S.S.S.) announced that it had signed an agreement with the Russia-based KOSMOTRAS to use decommissioned SS-18s as launchers for commercial satellites.
Perhaps appropriately, the rockets from the formerly classless society will loft decidedly proletariat payloads. O.S.S.S. hopes to mass manufacture satellites known as CubeSats, boxes measuring 4 in. a side that can be bought and launched for less than $45,000. Up...
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