On March 13, Spaceport Malaysia signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Swiss Space Systems (S3) to host the Payerne-based company’s reusable small satellite launch system. Flight tests are scheduled to begin in 2017. Spaceport Malaysia has plans to build a dedicated hangar for the S3 Airbus carrier ship that will also serve as a payload assembly facility for S3.
The S3 launcher will piggyback on an Airbus A300 from which it will launch with a disposable third stage. It will be able to deliver up to 250 kg to low Earth orbit. The video below explains how the S3 launcher works:
![A trajectory analysis that used a computational fluid dynamics approach to determine the likely position and velocity histories of the foam (Credits: NASA Ref [1] p61).](http://www.spacesafetymagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/fluid-dynamics-trajectory-analysis-50x50.jpg)
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