Cosmic Penguin
Geek Penguin in GTO
Well it's World Cup and job hunting times, so it's not like that spaceflight is high on my radar right now.....
....but hey look, the Russians have launched yet another fresh satellite for their navigation system GLONASS! This newest satellite (GLONASS-M #755) was launched on June 14 at 17:16 UTC from pad 43/4 of the Plesetsk cosmodrome in north-western Russia into a cloudy dusk sky. 3.5 hours later the Soyuz-2-1b rocket and Fregat upper stage precisely put it into the planned 19100 km, 64.8 deg. orbit. This is the second satellite for the GLONASS system this year, after a similar launch on March 23. Both satellites were heading to the third of three orbital planes to replace failing satellites launched in 2008 - this one will head for slot no.21. Also this satellite contains an additional experimental navigation payload that will broadcast test signals in a new frequency in preparation for the deployment of new GLONASS navigation messages.
And like last time, this launch again reaches the record books - except that this time there's no controversy. For one thing, the satellite became the 2500th object to be included in the Soviet/Russian "Kosmos" series, the largest blanket-covering name group for all kinds of objects launched into orbit ever since Kosmos 1 reached orbit in March 1962. The mixed bag continues to include some bizzarre and mysterious objects in the list, the latest of which are 2 previously unknown objects launched with the last 2 Rockot rockets in December and May (no. 2491 and 2499), of which nothing is known about them.
Another landmark is that this satellite becomes object no. 40001 in the United States NORAD's orbital object and debris tracking catalog - starting from Sputnik 1. With the advancements in sky-patrolling radars and satellite collisions and explosions, the number of debris being tracked is now quickly increasing - remember some of these objects may only be in the cenitmeter class size! Maybe no. 50000 will come in not a very long time after all..... :tiphat:
NASASpaceflight.com: Russian GLONASS launch spotted by the ISS crew
Spaceflight Now: Glonass navigation satellite launched by Soyuz rocket
Launch News Report (in Russian)
....and the launch was photographed from the ISS by Alexander Gerst!
....but hey look, the Russians have launched yet another fresh satellite for their navigation system GLONASS! This newest satellite (GLONASS-M #755) was launched on June 14 at 17:16 UTC from pad 43/4 of the Plesetsk cosmodrome in north-western Russia into a cloudy dusk sky. 3.5 hours later the Soyuz-2-1b rocket and Fregat upper stage precisely put it into the planned 19100 km, 64.8 deg. orbit. This is the second satellite for the GLONASS system this year, after a similar launch on March 23. Both satellites were heading to the third of three orbital planes to replace failing satellites launched in 2008 - this one will head for slot no.21. Also this satellite contains an additional experimental navigation payload that will broadcast test signals in a new frequency in preparation for the deployment of new GLONASS navigation messages.
And like last time, this launch again reaches the record books - except that this time there's no controversy. For one thing, the satellite became the 2500th object to be included in the Soviet/Russian "Kosmos" series, the largest blanket-covering name group for all kinds of objects launched into orbit ever since Kosmos 1 reached orbit in March 1962. The mixed bag continues to include some bizzarre and mysterious objects in the list, the latest of which are 2 previously unknown objects launched with the last 2 Rockot rockets in December and May (no. 2491 and 2499), of which nothing is known about them.
Another landmark is that this satellite becomes object no. 40001 in the United States NORAD's orbital object and debris tracking catalog - starting from Sputnik 1. With the advancements in sky-patrolling radars and satellite collisions and explosions, the number of debris being tracked is now quickly increasing - remember some of these objects may only be in the cenitmeter class size! Maybe no. 50000 will come in not a very long time after all..... :tiphat:
NASASpaceflight.com: Russian GLONASS launch spotted by the ISS crew
Spaceflight Now: Glonass navigation satellite launched by Soyuz rocket
Launch News Report (in Russian)
....and the launch was photographed from the ISS by Alexander Gerst!
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