[Home] [Blog] [Cosmos-2479 - new geostationary early warning satellite]

Cosmos-2479 - new geostationary early warning satellite

At 09:49 MSK on March 30, 2012 (05:49 UTC) the Space Forces conducted a launch of a Proton-K launcher (with DM-2 booster stage) from the Baykonur site (launch pad No. 24 of the launch complex No. 81).

The satellite, designated Cosmos-2479, received NORAD number 38101 and international designation 2012-012A. According to NORAD orbital data, the satellite was deployed on a nearly geosyncronous orbit at about 90E and is drifting eastward. Cosmos-2479 is a spacecraft of the 71Kh6 type - these satellites are stabilized at the point of 80E before they are moved to their permanent positions.

It was the last launch of the Proton-K launcher and the last early-warning satellite of the 71Kh6 type (in 2009 the Ministry of Defense had two satellites left - an HEO satellite was launched in September 2010). 71Kh6 satellites work as part of the US-KMO system that provides "look-down" coverage of potential missile launch areas.

Cosmos-2479 will be the only GEO early-warning satellite - its predecessor, Cosmos-2440, launched in June 2008, stopped working around February 2010.

UPDATE 04/02/12: The correct type of the satellite - 71Kh6 of the US-KMO system - was added.

UPDATE 04/012/12: As expected, the satellite has been positioned at the point 80E.

[Early warning] [Space] [March 30, 2012] []

TrackBack

TrackBack URL for this entry: https://russianforces.org/cgi-bin/mt/mt-tb.cgi/1074

References to this entry

The second command center of the space-based early-warning system is reported to have entered combat duty on 30 April 2012. The command center is located near Komsomolsk-on-Amur (see the map below). Its Western counterpart, known as Serpukhov-15, is lo...
[An early-warning satellite command center opens up] [May 31, 2012 4:44 PM] [#]
In the last few months Russia's constellation of early-warning satellites underwent some changes. One of the satellites on highly-elliptical orbits, Cosmos-2430 (32268), launched in October 2007, did not perform a station-keeping maneuver in May 2012 a...
[Changes in Russia's early warning satellite constellation] [November 13, 2012 2:20 PM] [#]
It's been exactly one year since I looked at the status of the Russian space-based early-warning system. This means that I missed the point when one of the satellites deployed on a highly-elliptical orbit, Cosmos-2469 (37170), stopped operations. The s...
[Russian early warning system is down to three satellites] [November 13, 2013 10:47 AM] [#]
Russia's only geostationary early-warning satellite, Cosmos-2479, launched in March 2012, has ceased operations. In March-April 2014 the satellite did not perform its regular station-keeping maneuver and, according to Kommersant, was formally declared ...
[Russia loses its only geostationary early-warning satellite] [June 25, 2014 12:25 PM] [#]
Two satellites of the old US-KS/Oko system that until recently maintained some coverage of ballistic missile launches, stopped functioning some time in the fall of 2014, leaving Russia without space-based tier of the early-warning system. Cosmos-2422 (...
[Russia lost all its early-warning satellites] [February 11, 2015 11:02 AM] [#]

Comments

Khartron-Arkos Company, ukrainian developer of satellite control systems, gives here (below) some official data on 71Kh6:
http://arkos.kharkov.ua/sutkm.php

[Alexander Stukalin] [April 19, 2012] [#]

http://arkos.kharkov.ua/sutkm_e.php

Thanks - English version of the page.

[SL ] [April 21, 2012] [#]

They seem to have registered an 8th Prognoz position - 98E. I'm not sure how to read the ITU data.

http://www.itu.int/ITU-R/space/snl/listinuse/index.asp?sel_satname=&sel_orbit_from=&sel_orbit_to=&sel_adm=&sel_org=&sel_date_from=&sel_date_to=&sel_sns_id=&sel_prov=&sel_rec=&nmod=&order=&npage=7

Does anyone know if the eastern control centre (Pivan-1?) has ever actually been used?

[SL ] [April 22, 2012] [#]

Yes. East control center is used actually now.
Source -- official Russian MoD newspaper:
http://www.redstar.ru/index.php/newspaper/item/2589-vostochnyiy-rezident

[Alexander Stukalin] [May 30, 2012] [#]

Opened 8 days after I wrote that!

[SL ] [June 1, 2012] [#]

This seems to be drifting - since July according to Anatoly Zak http://www.russianspaceweb.com/oko.html

http://www.satellite-calculations.com/Satellite/Catalog/38101.htm has it at 166E now.

[SL ] [October 22, 2012] [#]

Yes, I've seen the reports. There is a small chance that it will be stabilized at 166E - it's Prognoz-6 point. There's never been a spacecraft deployed there, but there is the first time for everything.

[Pavel Podvig ] [October 22, 2012] [#]

Post a comment