{"id":16874,"date":"2014-11-01T20:33:02","date_gmt":"2014-11-01T12:33:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/military-communications-satellite-launched-from-russia\/"},"modified":"2014-11-01T20:33:02","modified_gmt":"2014-11-01T12:33:02","slug":"military-communications-satellite-launched-from-russia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/military-communications-satellite-launched-from-russia\/","title":{"rendered":"Military communications satellite launched from Russia"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_781\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-781\" style=\"width: 621px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-781\" src=\"http:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/soyuz_meridian7.png\" alt=\"A Soyuz rocket lifted off Oct. 30 from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome with a Meridian communications satellite for the Russian military. Credit: Russian Ministry of Defense\" width=\"621\" height=\"413\" srcset=\"https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/soyuz_meridian7.png 900w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/soyuz_meridian7-300x200.png 300w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/soyuz_meridian7-768x511.png 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 621px) 100vw, 621px\"><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-781\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">A Soyuz rocket lifted off Oct. 30 from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome with a Meridian communications satellite for the Russian military. Credit: Russian Ministry of Defense<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>A Russian military communications relay platform blasted off Oct. 30 from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome, riding a Soyuz rocket and Fregat upper stage into an egg-shaped orbit reaching nearly 25,000 miles above Earth.<\/p>\n<p>The satellite launched at 0143 GMT on Oct. 30 (9:43 p.m. EDT on Oct. 29) on top of a Soyuz 2-1a rocket from Plesetsk, Russian\u2019s northern spaceport in the country\u2019s Archangelsk oblast, the RIA Novosti news agency reported.<\/p>\n<p>A Fregat upper stage released from the Soyuz booster\u2019s three-stage core vehicle fired three times to inject the Meridian communications satellite into an elliptical orbit with a low point of 600 miles and a high point of nearly 25,000 miles.<\/p>\n<p>Tilted at an angle of 62.8 degrees to the equator, the orbit provides coverage to Russian polar regions with limited access to conventional communications satellites over the equator.<\/p>\n<p>Separation of the Meridian satellite from the Fregat upper stage was expected around 0400 GMT (12 a.m. EDT).<\/p>\n<p>Russian media reports declared the launch successful.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"678\" height=\"509\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/-RB4iV-FTUU?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>The launch marked the seventh Meridian satellite to lift off since 2006. One of the spacecraft was sent into an incorrect orbit during a May 2009 launch, and another Meridian satellite crashed in Russia in December 2011 after a Soyuz rocket failure.<\/p>\n<p>The Oct. 30 liftoff was delayed several weeks for engineers to inspect the rocket\u2019s Fregat upper stage for damage after a train derailment during launch preparations at the Plesetsk Cosmodrome.<\/p>\n<p>The Meridian spacecraft are manufactured by ISS Reshetnev, a Russian space contractor, as replacements for a previous generation of Molniya communications satellites.<\/p>\n<p>The Meridian satellites link Russian ground forces, aircraft, ships and command centers in the Arctic, Siberia and the North Sea.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn accordance with the planned timetable, Meridian separated from the launch vehicle\u2019s upper stage and arrived at its final orbit,\u201d ISS Reshetnev said in a press release.<\/p>\n<p>The company said the satellite was transmitting telemetry and all systems were functioning as designed following launch.<\/p>\n<p><b><i>Follow Stephen Clark on Twitter: @StephenClark1.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A Soyuz rocket lifted off Oct. 30 from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome with a Meridian communications satellite for the Russian military. Credit: Russian Ministry of Defense A Russian military communications relay platform blasted off Oct. 30 from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome, riding a Soyuz rocket and Fregat upper stage into an egg-shaped orbit reaching nearly 25,000 miles [&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":[2318,1893,1302],"class_list":["post-16874","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-meridian","tag-plesetsk-cosmodrome","tag-soyuz"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16874"}],"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=16874"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16874\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16874"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16874"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16874"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}