Posted on June 5, 2015
A Soyuz-2.1a rocket blasts off from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome
at 1524 GMT (11:24 a.m. EDT). Credit: Russian Ministry of Defense
Russia successfully launched a Kobalt-type optical
reconnaissance satellite Friday aboard a Soyuz rocket, marking the workhorse
booster’s first flight since the failure of a resupply launch to the
International Space Station in April.
The three-stage Soyuz-2.1a rocket lifted off from the
Plesetsk Cosmodrome in northern Russia at 1524 GMT (11:24 a.m. EDT), according
to a statement released by the Russian Ministry of Defense.
Russian officials said the new satellite was named Kosmos
2505, keeping with the Russian military’s naming system for defense and
intelligence-gathering spacecraft.
Friday’s launch used the same upgraded type of Soyuz rocket
with a modernized digital flight control system that sent a doomed Progress
cargo craft into orbit April 28.
The Progress spacecraft spun out of control after reaching
orbit, and Russian investigators announced this week that a “design
peculiarity” in the linkage between the supply ship and the modernized Soyuz
rocket caused the mission’s failure.
The design bug does not affect launches of other satellites
on the Soyuz-2.1a rocket or Progress supply ships flying on previous versions
of the venerable Soyuz booster, according to Roscosmos, the Russian space
agency.
The Soyuz-2.1a rocket is fueled for launch Friday at the
Plesetsk Cosmodrome, a launch base about 500 miles north of Moscow. Credit:
Russian Ministry of Defense
Russian sources said Friday’s launch was originally set to
take off in May, but the managers delayed the launch to allow time for engineers
to complete the inquiry into the April 28 Progress launch anomaly.
The payload sent into orbit Friday is likely a Kobalt M
Earth-imaging satellite, which carries a high-resolution optical camera to spy
on international strategic targets from space.
Kobalt satellites carry canisters to return film from the
camera to Earth for inspection by Russian intelligence analysts. U.S. spy
satellites used a similar film return technique before switching to exclusively
digital cameras in the 1980s.
Tracking data from the U.S. Air Force’s Space Surveillance
Network indicated the spacecraft launched Friday is in an orbit with a low
point of 173 kilometers — 107 miles — and a high point of 280 kilometers — 174
miles. The satellite is circling Earth in an orbit inclined 81.4 degrees to the
equator.
The orbit matches the flight path of previous Kobalt
satellite launches.
The satellite is likely the last in Russia’s Kobalt series,
according to RussianSpaceWeb.com. A replacement program named Persona features
satellites with longer lifetimes capable of transmitting digital imagery via a
data downlink.