Russia will start off its new space year in January by launching an orbital laboratory to study the sun's activity, a spokesman for Russia's space agency told RIA Novosti on Thursday.

On January 29, Roscosmos will launch its Complex Orbital Near-Earth Observations of Solar Activity (Coronas) from the Baikonur space center, the spokesman for space projects said, describing the mission as part of a "unique space program to study the sun's activity."

"Coronas-Photon is the third satellite in this series and is set to be launched on January 29," he said. The research program already has two satellites in near-Earth orbit, Coronas-I and Coronas-F, he added.

According to the spokesman, Coronas-Photon's goal is to study the processes of free energy accumulation in the sun's atmosphere and its transformation into energy with accelerated particles. It will also study the mechanisms of the accelerated particles from sunbursts and the correlation of solar activity with magnetic storms on Earth, he said.

Russia's next launch will be the space cargo ship Progress M-66, which will take supplies to the International Space Station on February 10, followed on February 11 by a Proton-M rocket with two new Russian Express-series communications satellites. Both launches will be from Baikonur.

And around February 20 another Proton carrier rocket will blast off, this time to put a satellite into orbit for the Russian Defense Ministry.

Following that, on February 26, a Zenit rocket is to put into orbit a foreign Telstar communications satellite, the spokesman said.