On December 1, 2022 at 00:10:25 MSK (November 30, 2022, 21:10 UTC) the crews of the Air and Space Forces conducted a successful launch of a Soyuz-2.1b launcher from the launch pad 43/4 of the Plesetsk launch site. The launcher delivered into orbit two satellites - Cosmos-2565 and Cosmos-2566.
Cosmos-2565 appears to be the main payload of the mission. It received international designation 2022-163A and NORAD number 54381. The satellite was deployed in a nearly circular orbit with altitude of about 900 km. It is believed to be a Lotos-S1 electronic reconnaissance satellite of the Liana system. Previous satellite of this class, Cosmos-2554, was launched in April 2022.
Cosmos-2566 is an object that separated from the main payload on Dec 2 around 2300 UTC. This object (2022-163C, 54383) appears to be a smaller satellite. It has been suggested that it is a small electronic reconnaissance satellite.
UPDATE: Later, Cosmos-2566 released another object, 2022-163D/54817.
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