Cosmic Penguin
Geek Penguin in GTO
(Editor's note: Due to me just joined the full time working class since the last days of October, there has been serious delays on articles on 9 satellite launches since mid October. Well, I finally found time to write on them and so here they are, starting with 2 Russian launches in the last 4 weeks. Don't be afraid when they come out in batches! - GPS)
One of the most sought after cosmic asset that the Russian military has been waiting for decades is now finally in space - a new pair of missile watching eyes in orbit!
The Russian missile warning system has been in an incomplete state for at least 2 decades due to short life times (compared with their US counterparts, at least) and insufficient funding for the older satellites known as Oko) Moreover, the telescope on board the satellites have a narrow field of view such that global coverage has been impossible for quite some time.
The solution, of course, is to develop new satellites. Known as the EKS system, the new early warning system would have been able to replace the old satellites (last launched in 2010 and 2012) plus the old Soviet era radar network that is now starting to fall apart. The satellites apparently get the codename of "Tundra" and would have flown about a decade ago had there have been no development and funding issues.
Of course, as with many other Russian military projects, this one ended up with so many issues that the development contract had been canceled at one point and fell years behind schedule. However, with all the old Oko satellites failing by last year, the Russians simply cannot rely on their ground radars for their "holidays aboard"! :rofl:
So after 2 decades of works and years of delays, the first new satellite of the EKS system was launched on November 17 at 06:33 UTC from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome on a Soyuz-2.1b rocket. Despite the satellite codename suggesting a chance of it being deployed into a Tundra orbit, the satellite eventually ended up in a standard Molniya orbit of 1630 x 38550 km x 63.8 degrees, the standard orbit for such satellites since the early 1970s.
Several more satellites are planned to be launched over the next few years to fill in the gaps. So watch out everyone if your Minuteman/Trident II/M-51 got intercepted in flight - Putin et al. is watching your rockets! :shifty:
In the meantime, the same launch pad has already seen another launch! But that's the issue for yet another thread.....
RussianSpaceWeb.com: Russia begins reviving its early-warning satellite system
NASASpaceflight.com: Soyuz 2-1B launches EKS-1 to upgrade Russian Early Warning System
One of the most sought after cosmic asset that the Russian military has been waiting for decades is now finally in space - a new pair of missile watching eyes in orbit!
The Russian missile warning system has been in an incomplete state for at least 2 decades due to short life times (compared with their US counterparts, at least) and insufficient funding for the older satellites known as Oko) Moreover, the telescope on board the satellites have a narrow field of view such that global coverage has been impossible for quite some time.
The solution, of course, is to develop new satellites. Known as the EKS system, the new early warning system would have been able to replace the old satellites (last launched in 2010 and 2012) plus the old Soviet era radar network that is now starting to fall apart. The satellites apparently get the codename of "Tundra" and would have flown about a decade ago had there have been no development and funding issues.
Of course, as with many other Russian military projects, this one ended up with so many issues that the development contract had been canceled at one point and fell years behind schedule. However, with all the old Oko satellites failing by last year, the Russians simply cannot rely on their ground radars for their "holidays aboard"! :rofl:
So after 2 decades of works and years of delays, the first new satellite of the EKS system was launched on November 17 at 06:33 UTC from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome on a Soyuz-2.1b rocket. Despite the satellite codename suggesting a chance of it being deployed into a Tundra orbit, the satellite eventually ended up in a standard Molniya orbit of 1630 x 38550 km x 63.8 degrees, the standard orbit for such satellites since the early 1970s.
Several more satellites are planned to be launched over the next few years to fill in the gaps. So watch out everyone if your Minuteman/Trident II/M-51 got intercepted in flight - Putin et al. is watching your rockets! :shifty:
In the meantime, the same launch pad has already seen another launch! But that's the issue for yet another thread.....
RussianSpaceWeb.com: Russia begins reviving its early-warning satellite system
NASASpaceflight.com: Soyuz 2-1B launches EKS-1 to upgrade Russian Early Warning System
