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Earth observation satellite launched by Russia BY STEPHEN CLARK SPACEFLIGHT NOW Posted: August 28, 2005 Russia has a new eye in the sky to study the environment and assist in natural disasters after a Friday launch delivered the small satellite into polar orbit for mostly domestic users.
Liftoff of the Russian government Rockot booster with its Earth observation payload came at 1834 GMT (2:34 p.m. EDT) from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in far northern Russia. The rocket's Breeze-KM upper stage placed Monitor-E into the planned Sun-synchronous orbit with an altitude of about 335 miles about an hour-and-a-half later. Built by the Russian Krunichev state space research firm, Monitor-E is the first of a new series of modest-sized satellites to conduct science investigations on par with those previously requiring large space-based platforms. Expectations are the spacecraft will operate for at least five years. The craft will image Earth's surface in resolutions ranging from about 25 feet in swaths about 56 miles wide to over 65 feet when the width of the image approaches 100 miles. Such color and black-and-white data is useful for a variety of applications, including mapping, land resource studies, emergency management, and the monitoring of agricultural crops and environmental damage. Roskosmos - the Russian Space Agency - has included Monitor-E in the country's official federal space program, giving it a 70 percent stake in the satellite's mission. Plans are in work for follow-on craft featuring infrared, stereo, high resolution, and even radar imaging capabilities, Russian news reports say. Friday's launch was the 32nd space mission to reach orbit in 2005, and the first of the year for the Rockot vehicle. A commercial flight of the Rockot is planned for later this year when it will haul the European CryoSat spacecraft to its orbital perch for its duties to determine changes in ice cap thickness. |
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