The ground automatic complex of the space troops of the Aerospace Forces ensured the launch of Arktika-M satellite from Baikonur spaceport, the Defense Ministry said.
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On February 28, 2021 at 06:55:01 UTC, the Soyuz-2.1b carrier rocket with Fregat upper stage and the Arktika-M spacecraft No. 1 successfully launched from site No.31 of the Baikonur Cosmodrome. 562 seconds after the liftoff, according to the processed telemetry date, the ascent unit nominally separated from the third stage of the carrier (Picture source: Roscosomos)
“The ground means of the Titov Main space test center of the 15th army of the Aerospace Forces sustainably tracked the Soyuz-2.1b rocket and the orbiting of Arktika-M by Frigate booster,” it said.
Specialists of the 15th army processed telemetric information of the carrier and booster at the active section of the orbital flight.
Over 400 men and close to 30 ground measuring tools were engaged by the Titov center in the operation.
The Russian Space Systems Company designed and produced multi-zonal scanners for Arktika satellite in 2017. Arktika-M is similar in equipment to Electro-L geostationary remote Earth sensing satellites. It operates in a high elliptical orbit and surveys Polar regions of the Earth, which Electro-L cannot properly see.
Arktika-M 1 is the first of a new line of satellites designed to provide persistent weather data on Russia’s Arctic, home to economically lucrative natural resources, energy reserves, and an important region for Russian military operations
According to Roscosmos, Russia’s space agency, the Arktika-M satellites will obtain color images of clouds and Earth’s surface in the Arctic. The Arktika-M satellites also host radio receivers and transmitters to relay information from weather stations and search-and-rescue beacons in polar regions, which are inaccessible to conventional geostationary satellites.
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