{"id":14513,"date":"2017-06-23T20:40:26","date_gmt":"2017-06-23T12:40:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/secret-russian-satellite-launched-from-plesetsk-cosmodrome\/"},"modified":"2017-06-23T20:40:26","modified_gmt":"2017-06-23T12:40:26","slug":"secret-russian-satellite-launched-from-plesetsk-cosmodrome","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/secret-russian-satellite-launched-from-plesetsk-cosmodrome\/","title":{"rendered":"Secret Russian satellite launched from Plesetsk Cosmodrome"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"678\" height=\"381\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/ttc8ADF96Os?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>A modified version of Russia\u2019s Soyuz rocket launched Friday from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome, a spaceport on the edge of the Russian Arctic, with a military satellite whose mission is shrouded in mystery.<\/p>\n<p>The Soyuz 2-1v rocket lifted off at 1804 GMT (3:04 p.m. EDT; 9:04 p.m. Moscow time) from Pad 4 at Site 43 at Plesetsk, a military-run spaceport around 500 miles (800 kilometers) north of Moscow in Russia\u2019s Arkhangelsk region.<\/p>\n<p>Russia announced the successful launch in a statement posted on the Russian Defense Ministry\u2019s website late Friday.<\/p>\n<p>The defense ministry and Russian media reports did not offer any immediate details on the payload launched Friday.<\/p>\n<p>U.S. military tracking data indicated the spacecraft and the Soyuz rocket\u2019s Volga upper stage were orbiting about 410 miles (660 kilometers) above Earth following Friday\u2019s mission. The objects are flying in an orbit tilted 98 degrees to the equator.<\/p>\n<p>Officially designated Kosmos 2519, the satellite might be the first of several \u201c14F150 Napryazhenie\u201d geodetic satellites designed to make extremely accurate measurements of Earth\u2019s shape and gravitational field. Such data that can be fed into ballistic missile guidance computers, according to RussianSpaceWeb.com, a website run by respected Russian space journalist Anatoly Zak.<\/p>\n<p>The launch was not officially announced in advance, but Russian authorities issued warnings to pilots a few days before the flight to keep out of drop zones in the Arctic Ocean where the Soyuz 2-1v\u2019s first stage and payload fairing were predicted to fall.<\/p>\n<p>The Soyuz 2-1v flew north from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome, its first stage driven by an NK-33 main engine and four steering thrusters.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_25533\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-25533\" style=\"width: 675px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-25533\" src=\"http:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/soyuz21v_2.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"675\" height=\"422\" srcset=\"https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/soyuz21v_2.png 900w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/soyuz21v_2-300x188.png 300w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/soyuz21v_2-768x480.png 768w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/soyuz21v_2-678x424.png 678w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/soyuz21v_2-30x19.png 30w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 675px) 100vw, 675px\"><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-25533\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Soyuz 2-1v during rollout to the launch pad earlier this week. Credit: Russian Ministry of Defense<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The lightweight rocket is a scaled-down version of Russia\u2019s venerable Soyuz launcher, but it employs a different propulsion system. The single-nozzle NK-33 engine replaces the four-nozzle RD-108 engine on the Soyuz main stage.<\/p>\n<p>The Soyuz 2-1v also flies without the four strap-on boosters that make up the first stage of other Soyuz vehicles.<\/p>\n<p>The NK-33 engine came from a stockpile of Soviet-era rocket engines manufactured more than 40 years ago for Russia\u2019s huge N1 moon rocket. Russia\u2019s Kuznetsov Design Bureau, which built the NK-33 engines, kept them in storage after the Soviet Union canceled moon program.<\/p>\n<p>Russia exported some of the NK-33 engines to the United States in the 1990s for Aerojet to sell to U.S. launch providers. Orbital ATK purchased the modified NK-33 engines \u2014 called the AJ26 by Aerojet Rocketdyne \u2014 to use on its Antares launcher for International Space Station resupply missions.<\/p>\n<p>One of two NK-33 engines failed seconds after an Antares launch from Virginia in October 2014, destroying the rocket and a Cygnus supply ship heading for the space station.<\/p>\n<p>Orbital ATK ordered replacement engines from Russia and redesigned the Antares to accommodate the new propulsion system. The new engines are RD-181s, similar to the highly successful RD-180 engine used on United Launch Alliance\u2019s Atlas 5 rocket.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_25534\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-25534\" style=\"width: 676px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-25534\" src=\"http:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/soyuz21v_3.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"676\" height=\"423\" srcset=\"https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/soyuz21v_3.png 900w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/soyuz21v_3-300x188.png 300w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/soyuz21v_3-768x480.png 768w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/soyuz21v_3-678x424.png 678w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/soyuz21v_3-30x19.png 30w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 676px) 100vw, 676px\"><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-25534\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Soyuz 2-1v inside its assembly building at Plesetsk. Credit: Russian Ministry of Defense<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Meanwhile, Russian engineers designed an upgraded combustion chamber and a new igniter chamber for installation on the leftover NK-33 engines to fly on future Soyuz 2-1v rockets.<\/p>\n<p>An NK-33 engine with the new chambers passed a ground acceptance test in October 2015, one year after the Antares failure, and the powerplant performed well on a Soyuz 2-1v launch in December 2015.<\/p>\n<p>The Soyuz 2-1v\u2019s second stage, powered by an RD-0124 engine, is similar to the third stage of the Soyuz 2-1b rocket often used for launching Russian military satellites, plus international commercial payloads from French Guiana.<\/p>\n<p>A Volga upper stage was expected to maneuver the mission\u2019s classified satellite into its final perch a few hundred miles above Earth.<\/p>\n<p>Friday\u2019s launch was the third flight of a Soyuz 2-1v booster. Including Friday\u2019s flight, two of the missions have been successful, while one of the launches was a partial success after failing to deploy one of its payloads upon reaching orbit.<\/p>\n<p><b><i>Email the author.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n<p><em><strong>Follow Stephen Clark on Twitter: @StephenClark1.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A modified version of Russia\u2019s Soyuz rocket launched Friday from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome, a spaceport on the edge of the Russian Arctic, with a military satellite whose mission is shrouded in mystery. The Soyuz 2-1v rocket lifted off at 1804 GMT (3:04 p.m. EDT; 9:04 p.m. Moscow time) from Pad 4 at Site 43 at [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[2534,1890,3267,3268,25,3002,1893,352],"class_list":["post-14513","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-geodesy","tag-kosmos","tag-kosmos-2519","tag-kuznetsov-design-bureau","tag-launch","tag-nk-33","tag-plesetsk-cosmodrome","tag-russia"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14513"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14513"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14513\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14513"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14513"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14513"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}