Russian carrier rocket takes Japanese satellite into space.

MOSCOW, June 2 (Itar-Tass) - Russian carrier rocket Rokot that lifted off from the Plesetsk space center in the north of European Russia at 01:59 GMT Wednesday has taken into space the Japanese experimental satellite SERVIS-2, Colonel Alexei Zolotukhin, an official spokesman for the Space Troops said.

The booster block Briz KM separated from the satellite at 02:04 GMT,
or more precisely, 319 seconds after the launch from Plesetsk, a source at
the Russian Space Agency /Roskosmos/ said.
The estimated time of the satellite's entry of the designated orbit is
07:34 Moscow daylight saving time /03:34 GMT/, Col Zolotukhin said.

.Landing capsule with 3 cosmonauts separates from Soyuz spaceship.

KOROLYOV, Moscow region, June 2 (Itar-Tass) - Landing capsule, in
which Russian cosmonaut Oleg Kotov, U.S. astronaut Timothy Creamer and
Japanese astronaut Soichi Noguchi are returning to the Earth from the
International Space Station, separated from the Soyuz TMA-17 spaceship at
06:59 Moscow daylight saving time /02:59 GMT/.
Officials at the Space Flights Ground Control Center told Itar-Tass
the separation occurred at the altitude of 133 over the Red Sea and the
landing capsule entered the terrestrial atmosphere in an area of the
border between Iraq and Iran.
The capsule is due to land 148 kilometers to the southeast of the city
of Dzhezkazgan in Kazakhstan at around 07:34 Moscow time /03:34 GMT/.
During the descent, the crew experienced gravity overloads, the
maximum of which occurs at the altitude of 36 kilometers when less than 17
minutes is left before landing.
To cushion off the impact of overloads to the maximum, special seat
liners tailored to meet the body parameters of each cosmonaut, are used.
Spokespeople recalled that the landing capsule is located between the
household room and the equipment bay of the Soyuz spaceship. Upon
separation, these two modules burn in the upper layers of the atmosphere.
Search and rescue teams meet the cosmonauts on the surface of the
Earth and in the air. Wednesday's task force includes three planes and
twelve helicopters.
The air temperature in the designated landing area was about 10 C at
the time of reporting.

.Soyuz spaceship's landing capsule makes soft landing in Kazakhstan.

KOROLYOV, Moscow region, June 2 (Itar-Tass) - Landing capsule of the
Soyuz TMA-17 spaceship with three cosmonauts inside landed at 07:25 Moscow
daylight saving time /03:25 GMT/ in the designated landing area located to
the southeast of the city of Dzhezkazgan in Kazakhstan.
It brought to the Earth the Russian cosmonaut Oleg Kotov, the U.S.
astronaut Timothy Creamer and the Japanese astronaut Soichi Noguchi after
a 163-days-long mission at the International Space Station.
An aircraft of the rescue service detected signals from a UHF
transmitter aboard the descending capsule right after the latter had
emerged from the plasma. It then tracked the capsule through to the point
of landing.

URGENT -- Israel begins to evacute diplomats' families from Ankara

TEL AVIV, June 2 (Itar-Tass) -- Amid rising security risks and
tensions in relations with Turkey, Israel has begun to evacuate families
of the diplomats working at its mission in Ankara, Israeli state radio
said.

.Japanese satellite launched by Russian rocket reaches designated
orbit.

MOSCOW, June 2 (Itar-Tass) - Russian carrier rocket Proton that lifted
off from the Plesetsk Space Center in the northern Arkhangelsk region at
01:59 GMT Wednesday has successfully taken to the designated orbit the
Japanese experimentsl satellite SERVIS-2, Lieutenant Colonel Aleksei
Zolotukhin, the spokesman for Russian Space Troops said.
"Information from the Space Vehicles Main Testing and Control Center
and from the Command Post of the Space Troops says the satellite was
delivered into orbit as scheduled," Lt Colonel Zolotukhin said.
"Upon arrival in the orbit, control of the probe was taken over by the
customer," he said.
The abbreviation SERVIS stands for Space Environment Reliability
Verification Integrated System. The latter is a program of verification of
reliability of prospective technological systems in space.
It was launched in 1999 and continues through to 2011. During the
period, the Japanese companies designed two demonstration satellites.
The first of them was launched in October 2003, also by a Rokot rocket
under a contract with the provider of launching services, the JV Eurockot.
It successfully completed a two-years-long mission in space.
SERVIS-2 satellite weighs 740 kilograms. It will work in the sun
synchronous orbit with the elevation of 1,200 kilometers.
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