Cosmic Penguin
Geek Penguin in GTO
Russia has re-gained radar capability on orbit yesterday after a 20 year gap - but both the satellite and its carrier to orbit have rather strange stories and are about a decade overdue. (!)
A converted UR-100N (a.k.a. SS-19 Stiletto) ICBM, known as Strela (Russian for arrow), was launched from an underground silo at area 175 at the Baikonur Cosmodrome at 16:53 UTC yesterday. The rocket, itself a close relative of Khrunichev's Rockot (without the Breeze upper stage, while retaining the old missile's terminal control stage), deployed a 1 tonne satellite named Kondor 1 into a 500 km, 74.7 deg. orbit 25 minutes later.
Both the rocket and satellite are developed by NPO Mashinostroenia, one of the descendants of the huge design bureau once led by Vladimir Chelomey (of which Khrunichev is the most well known). While the company mainly dealt with all kinds of missiles, it also had experience in spacecraft design, as it had designed the (in)famous Almaz military space station and radar satellite program. However this small radar satellite project and the rocket programs suffered from lack of funds and was delayed by at least a decade - the test flight of the Strela rocket happened in December 2003! This successful launch means that Russia now finally have usable all-weather Earth observation ability, which many countries around the world are now capable of.
NASASpaceflight.com: Russian Strela rocket launches Kondor satellite
References:
A converted UR-100N (a.k.a. SS-19 Stiletto) ICBM, known as Strela (Russian for arrow), was launched from an underground silo at area 175 at the Baikonur Cosmodrome at 16:53 UTC yesterday. The rocket, itself a close relative of Khrunichev's Rockot (without the Breeze upper stage, while retaining the old missile's terminal control stage), deployed a 1 tonne satellite named Kondor 1 into a 500 km, 74.7 deg. orbit 25 minutes later.
Both the rocket and satellite are developed by NPO Mashinostroenia, one of the descendants of the huge design bureau once led by Vladimir Chelomey (of which Khrunichev is the most well known). While the company mainly dealt with all kinds of missiles, it also had experience in spacecraft design, as it had designed the (in)famous Almaz military space station and radar satellite program. However this small radar satellite project and the rocket programs suffered from lack of funds and was delayed by at least a decade - the test flight of the Strela rocket happened in December 2003! This successful launch means that Russia now finally have usable all-weather Earth observation ability, which many countries around the world are now capable of.
NASASpaceflight.com: Russian Strela rocket launches Kondor satellite
References:
