{"id":16426,"date":"2015-03-31T21:42:35","date_gmt":"2015-03-31T13:42:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/rockot-launcher-deploys-russian-data-relay-satellites\/"},"modified":"2015-03-31T21:42:35","modified_gmt":"2015-03-31T13:42:35","slug":"rockot-launcher-deploys-russian-data-relay-satellites","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/rockot-launcher-deploys-russian-data-relay-satellites\/","title":{"rendered":"Rockot launcher deploys Russian data relay satellites"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"678\" height=\"381\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/NIdjbr-s098?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Three small satellites launched from Russia\u2019s Plesetsk Cosmdorome into a 930-mile-high orbit Tuesday, flying into space aboard a Rockot launcher to relay emails, technical data and other messages between remote users.<\/p>\n<p>The 95-foot-tall launcher, a converted SS-19 ballistic missile from Soviet-era nuclear forces, lifted off Tuesday from Complex 133 at Plesetsk, a military facility about 500 miles north of Moscow.<\/p>\n<p>The launch occurred at 1348 GMT (9:48 a.m. EDT), or 4:48 p.m. local time.<\/p>\n<p>The trio of Gonets M communications satellite packaged on top of the launcher rode away from Plesetsk on a northerly trajectory. The Rockot\u2019s two-stage core booster completed its pair of engine firings about five minutes after liftoff, then a Breeze KM upper stage took over for two burns before deploying the Gonets payloads.<\/p>\n<p>The Breeze KM stage released the three 617-pound Gonets M satellites in orbit at about 1545 GMT (11:45 a.m. EDT), according to Russian news reports.<\/p>\n<p>A secretive Russian military satellite accompanied the Gonets spacecraft into orbit. Russian officials have not disclosed information on its mission.<\/p>\n<p>The deployment completed the Rockot launcher\u2019s 23rd flight since 2000.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_5358\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-5358\" style=\"width: 621px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-5358\" src=\"http:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/DSC_3961-550.jpg\" alt=\"The Rocket launcher lifts off at 1348 GMT (9:48 a.m. EDT; 4:48 p.m. local time) Tuesday. Credit: Russian Ministry of Defense\" width=\"621\" height=\"440\" srcset=\"https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/DSC_3961-550.jpg 550w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/DSC_3961-550-300x213.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 621px) 100vw, 621px\"><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-5358\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Rocket launcher lifts off at 1348 GMT (9:48 a.m. EDT; 4:48 p.m. local time) Tuesday. Credit: Russian Ministry of Defense<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>U.S. military tracking data indicate the satellites are circling Earth in an orbit about 932 miles \u2014 1,500 kilometers \u2014 above Earth at an inclination of 82.5 degrees.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAccording to the telemetry data received, the satellites have completed sun and Earth acquisition phases, all their mechanical systems have deployed successfully, on-board subsystems are performing as designed,\u201d Reshetnev said in a statement.<\/p>\n<p>Russian government ministries and civilian authorities use the Gonets M satellites to relay secure messages between mobile terminals and fixed operators. The Gonets constellation will be fully operational once ground controllers activate the spacecraft launched Tuesday, giving the network 12 satellites.<\/p>\n<p>The Gonets fleet is effective in Russia\u2019s far northern regions out of reach of conventional satellite communications systems. Messages relayed by the Gonets network are transmitted from the ground to a satellite passing overhead, then stored in the craft\u2019s memory until it flies over the message\u2019s recipient.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_5359\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-5359\" style=\"width: 620px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-5359\" src=\"http:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/DSC_3963-550.jpg\" alt=\"Credit: Russian Ministry of Defense\" width=\"620\" height=\"440\" srcset=\"https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/DSC_3963-550.jpg 550w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/DSC_3963-550-300x213.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 620px) 100vw, 620px\"><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-5359\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Credit: Russian Ministry of Defense<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The payloads launched Tuesday are designated Gonets M satellites No. 21, No. 22 and No. 23. The Gonets system is commissioned by Roscosmos, the Russian Federal Space Agency.<\/p>\n<p>The Gonets system \u201cis intended to provide communications and data transmission services to remote and hard-to-reach regions, including the Far North, as well as to be used for industrial, transport and ecological monitoring purposes,\u201d Reshetnev said in a statement after Tuesday\u2019s launch.<\/p>\n<p>Gonets means \u201cmessenger\u201d in Russian.<\/p>\n<p>Each spacecraft is designed for a five-year lifetime, and Reshetnev said nine more Gonets M satellites are under construction for launches in the coming years. The company is also designing a modernized Gonets M1 spacecraft to introduce upgrades into the communications network.<\/p>\n<p><b><i>Follow Stephen Clark on Twitter: @StephenClark1.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Three small satellites launched from Russia\u2019s Plesetsk Cosmdorome into a 930-mile-high orbit Tuesday, flying into space aboard a Rockot launcher to relay emails, technical data and other messages between remote users. The 95-foot-tall launcher, a converted SS-19 ballistic missile from Soviet-era nuclear forces, lifted off Tuesday from Complex 133 at Plesetsk, a military facility about [&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":[2408,1983,1893,2409],"class_list":["post-16426","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-breeze-km","tag-gonets","tag-plesetsk-cosmodrome","tag-rockot"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16426"}],"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=16426"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16426\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16426"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16426"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16426"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}