Brazil plans to develop its own carrier rocket for conveying small satellites into orbit by 2014, the Brazilian Space Agency (AEB) said on Monday.

The agency said the rocket is being built by its main satellite launch vehicle project, VLS.

The project was initially frozen in 2003 after an explosion destroyed a rocket on the pad at the Alcantara Launch Center in northern Brazil, killing 21 people.

The test launch of the VLS-1 rocket is scheduled for 2012 and the first launch of the fully loaded rocket is due in 2013, the agency said in a statement.

Earlier reports said Russia may take part in the project. In 2009, a delegation from the Brazilian Institute of Aeronautics and Space (IAE) visited the Makeev State Rocket Center in Miass, near the city of Chelyabinsk in the Russian Urals.

RIO DE JANEIRO, April 5 (RIA Novosti)