Soyuz-ST rocket launches six military satellites

[Детективное агентство ИКС-Инфо.]

MOSCOW, Dec 17 - RIA News. The Russian Soyuz-ST rocket, launched for the second time in history from the Kourou Cosmodrome in French Guiana, launched the Pleiades, Elisa and SSoT spacecraft, which successfully separated from the Frigate-MT booster block and began autonomous flight, reported the press service of Roscosmos.
The launch is broadcast on the website of the European space concern Arianespace.
The Soyuz-ST payload comprised six satellites: the Pleiades-1, four Elisa microsatellites, and the SSOT satellite. The Pleiades-1, to which the Pleiades-2 apparatus would later join, undocked from the rocket at the 55th minute of the flight. Four minutes after it, the four Elisa (Electronic Intelligence by Satellite) satellites undocked.
The Russian rocket Soyuz-ST at 6.03 Moscow time successfully launched from the equatorial Kourou space center in French Guiana, its task is to put military observation satellites into orbit.
Soyuz-ST is putting two satellites into orbit to monitor the Pleiades-1 over the Earth’s surface, prepared by the National Center for Space Research (CNES) for the French Ministry of Defense. After the launch of the second Pleiades satellite, which will take place a year later, the French Ministry will be able to receive 50 images per day from spacecraft.
Four Elisa (Electronic Intelligence by Satellite) also successfully undocked. With their help, the General Delegation of Armaments (Defense Procurement Agency) of France (DGA) will be able to map the radar transmitters located on the ground and determine their characteristics.
The SSOT observation satellite, which will serve the needs of the Chilean armed forces, has also separated from the missile. It will be able to supply high-resolution images used for cartography, agriculture, natural resource management and natural disaster prediction.

The first ever launch of a Russian rocket from a cosmodrome outside the former USSR took place on October 22. With the successful launch of the Soyuz ST-B, which launched two European Galileo satellites into orbit, a joint project between Russia and Europe began in the late 1990s. The project will provide the Kura Cosmodrome with greater opportunities for launches, since now Europeans do not have their own middle-class missile.
Earlier, Soyuz could only start from two cosmodromes - the Russian Plesetsk and Baikonur in Kazakhstan. To launch from Kourou, the rocket had to be modified.
Due to the proximity of the launch pad to the equator, the same rocket can launch into space 15% more cargo compared to launches from the American cosmodrome at Cape Canaveral and 40% compared to launches from Baikonur.
It is assumed that the commercial launches of Soyuz-ST from the cosmodrome to Kura will be conducted for at least ten years, with up to four launches per year.

https://ria.ru/science/20111217/518967481.html

 

[Матушкин Андрей Николаевич]

Thank.