On May 3, 2006 Russia successfully launched Soyuz-U rocket spacecraft from the Plesetsk launch site. The satellite delivered into orbit is an optical reconnaissance satellite of the Kobalt-M type, which was designated Cosmos-2420.
The launch was performed from the launch pad No. 2 of the launch complex No. 16 of the Plesetsk launch site by the Space Forces crews at 21:38 MSK (17:38 UTC). The spacecraft successfully reached its orbit and was taken under control of the Main Space Command and Control Center of the Space Forces at 21:50 MSK.
Cosmos-2420 received international designation 2006-017A and NORAD catalog number 29111. According to NORAD data, Cosmos-2420 was deployed in an orbit with inclination of 67.15 degrees, orbital period of about 89.5 minutes, apogee of 360 km, and perigee of 180 km. This is the orbit that optical reconnaissance satellite of the Yantar-4KS2/Kobalt family used in the past.
The Space Forces earlier announced a plan to launch a satellite of the Kobalt-M type in 2006 (and one satellite every year thereafter). It is a modification of the Kobalt optical reconnaissance satellite developed by TsSKB Progress and MZ Arsenal. The first satellite of this type, Cosmos-2410, was launched in September 2004 and completed its operations (prematurely) in January 2005.
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Pavel , What kind of resolution do these Russian Optical Rec Sats provide ??
Its believed that US Rec Sats provide resolution in sub-meter or may be the newer one in centi-meter.
But what about Russian achievement in this field , Its known that Russian lags far behind than US as far as Recce Satellite Goes.
I haven't seen reliable estimates of the resolution. But I don't see any reason why it would be any worse than that of U.S. satellites.
Pavel,I can understand not getting reliable information on the subject , But if you have any rough estimates it should provide us with some benchmark to compare.
The US had sub meter capability way back in mid 80's may be much earlier , after nearly two decades it wont be suprising if its resolution capability will be in centimeteres or better.
US has lead the world as far as Sat Reco goes and after investing Huge Funds and Developing Front technologies its way ahead.
I would have serious doubts with that statement that US and Russia will be in the same platform as far as Sat Reco goes.
Do we have any pictures of Kobalt-M or any other Russian sat of type EW, Ocean reco or Elint Type.
Yes, this would be an interesting thing to look at.
Go to Gunter's Space Page (www.skyrocket.de/space)... he has photos of nearly all the Russian military satellites including the Kobalt class. The Kobalt specifically is a film return satellite (as opposed to a CCD-type imager) with reportedly around 1-m resolution (limited by poor quality Russian-era film). The best Russian imaging satellite with respect to resolution was the Arkon system last flown in 2003. It was a large electro-optical satellite with sub-meter resolution according to published reports and brochures.
Arkon was in very high orbit 1500x1800 km
Hi Tim , The Gunter's Space Page is of a very generic nature and in some cases there are duplicate pictures of satellites.
1m resolution is no big shakes in this time and age , even Israel Ofeq and India's TES has similar capability.
Russian surely would have crossed the 1m barrier long time back . Sub-meter yes but how much we dont know.
I am just Crystal Ball Gazing but atleast a resolution 0.5m is what can be expected from any Reco Satellites.
We would never know unless officially they say something on that subject.