The Cosmos-2421 US-PU spacecraft, launched last week, is reported to be having problems with one of its solar batteries. The extent of the problems is not clear, though - some sources say that the spacecraft is essentially lost, while a source in the industry said that only one of the eight solar panel segments failed to deploy and that this will not prevent the satellite from functioning normally.
It was reported that the spacecraft is actually quite old - it was produced about 15 years ago (by the Arsenal Design Bureau in St Petersburg, which was Leningrad at that time) and had been in storage since then.
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Pavel- when Russians talk about the "solar battery", they are including the solar panel and energy storage device, correct? So is this saying that one panel didn't fully deploy?
I think it's the panel, not the battery. I should have been more careful with translation.
So what do we know about the status Cosmos-2421 , Is it operational or have they lost it , Can we expect any official statement in that regard as to what the fact is
Judging by the amount of debris, this satellite either exploded or was caused to explode. Which was it?
As I understand, satellites of this type normally disintegrate shortly before reentry. It's possible that they have some self-destruct mechanism on board.