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International Space Flight (ESA, Russia, China and others) => Russian Launchers - Soyuz, Progress and Uncrewed => Topic started by: Nicolas PILLET on 06/02/2017 06:21 pm

Title: Kosmos 2519/2521/2523 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: Nicolas PILLET on 06/02/2017 06:21 pm
Third launch of Soyuz-2.1v will occur from Plesetsk on 23th June 2017, according to my informations.
Title: Re: Soyuz-2.1v - 23th June 2017
Post by: Steven Pietrobon on 06/03/2017 07:11 am
Is it carrying one of these payloads?

Geo IK-2 N3
14F150 N2
Title: Re: Soyuz-2.1v - 23th June 2017
Post by: Alter Sachse on 06/03/2017 10:07 am
Is it carrying one of these payloads?

Geo IK-2 N3
14F150 N2
Could be 14F150 (whatever it is). The satellite has long been announced.
Geo-IK 2 13L with Rokot (according to NK-Forum)
Title: Re: Soyuz-2.1v - 23th June 2017
Post by: Alter Sachse on 06/03/2017 11:57 am
14F150 (whatever it is)*

*We have already discussed, I can not find the thread.
A. Zak writes: Napryazhenie (see 14F150) Nevilir-3U, Nevilir-P project (Geodesy)
http://www.russianspaceweb.com/spacecraft_military.html
Title: Re: Soyuz-2.1v - 23th June 2017
Post by: Stan Black on 06/03/2017 02:31 pm
14F150 (whatever it is)*

*We have already discussed, I can not find the thread.
A. Zak writes: Napryazhenie (see 14F150) Nevilir-3U, Nevilir-P project (Geodesy)
http://www.russianspaceweb.com/spacecraft_military.html


30.07.2015 - Soyuz-2.1v n°3L - Plesetsk 43/4 - 14F150 n°2

Hmm Stan has uncovered many of those product designations, but 14F150 isn't in the list....and it's #2 too....  :-X


Possibly geodesy?

See here:-
http://novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/forum/messages/forum12/topic2063/message1385103/#message1385103

I noticed Mr. Zak has updated his website too (Google cache shows changes after June 10th), so I don’t know if that gives it legetimacy.

I overlooked this:-
Quote
1.3. В целях расширения рынка сбыта выпускаемых приборов проводится согласование
протоколов разрешённого применения на применение приборов на КА «Спектр-РГ», «Нивелир-Л», «Напряжение-Л», «Резонанс», 14Ф01.
http://www.geofizika-cosmos.ru/assets/files/otchyotnost/godovoj-otchet-2013.pdf

So article 14Ф150 is satellite «Nivelir-L»?

Maybe it is a double satellite, №1 and №2?
Title: Re: Soyuz-2.1v - 23th June 2017
Post by: Alter Sachse on 06/03/2017 03:47 pm
14F150 (whatever it is)*

*We have already discussed, I can not find the thread.
A. Zak writes: Napryazhenie (see 14F150) Nevilir-3U, Nevilir-P project (Geodesy)
http://www.russianspaceweb.com/spacecraft_military.html


30.07.2015 - Soyuz-2.1v n°3L - Plesetsk 43/4 - 14F150 n°2

Hmm Stan has uncovered many of those product designations, but 14F150 isn't in the list....and it's #2 too....  :-X


Possibly geodesy?

See here:-
http://novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/forum/messages/forum12/topic2063/message1385103/#message1385103

I noticed Mr. Zak has updated his website too (Google cache shows changes after June 10th), so I don’t know if that gives it legetimacy.

I overlooked this:-
Quote
1.3. В целях расширения рынка сбыта выпускаемых приборов проводится согласование
протоколов разрешённого применения на применение приборов на КА «Спектр-РГ», «Нивелир-Л», «Напряжение-Л», «Резонанс», 14Ф01.
http://www.geofizika-cosmos.ru/assets/files/otchyotnost/godovoj-otchet-2013.pdf

So article 14Ф150 is satellite «Nivelir-L»?

Maybe it is a double satellite, №1 and №2?
I can remember, but did not find it. Thank you !
Title: Re: tbd - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: Galactic Penguin SST on 06/19/2017 03:15 pm
Any air/marine space closure notices out there that can hint on the launch window and target orbit?  ::)
Title: Re: tbd - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: Artyom. on 06/19/2017 03:52 pm
From NK (http://novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/forum/messages/forum14/topic14042/message1658923/#message1658923):

23 Jun at 18:04:39 UTC
Title: Re: tbd - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: input~2 on 06/20/2017 01:25 pm
Any air/marine space closure notices out there that can hint on the launch window and target orbit?  ::)

G3262/17 - ATS RTE B488 SEGMENT NUTLA - LIMUS CLSD. SFC - UNL, DAILY 1800-1900, 23 JUN 18:00 2017 UNTIL 24 JUN 19:00 2017. CREATED: 19 JUN 05:57 2017
G3263/17 - TEMPO DANGER AREA FOR ACFT FLT ACT WI COORD: 701800N0334900E-701200N0340800E-695400N0344300E-693300N0344700E- 692500N0341500E-693500N0333700E-695300N0330500E-701200N0331100E- 701800N0334900E. SFC - UNL, DAILY 1800-1900, 23 JUN 18:00 2017 UNTIL 24 JUN 19:00 2017. CREATED: 19 JUN 06:01 2017
A2101/17 -  RECEIVED FROM MAIN AIR TRAFIFIC MANAGMENT CENTER OF RUSSIA: ROCKET IMPACT AREA IN THE BARENTS SEA: 7559N 02126E - 7550N 02202E - 7531N 02256E - 7521N 02252E - 7515N 02213E - 7524N 02129E - 7536N 02051E - 7550N 02030E - (7559N 02126E). GND - UNL, DAILY 1800-1900, 23 JUN 18:00 2017 UNTIL 24 JUN 19:00 2017. CREATED: 20 JUN 12:44 2017
Title: Re: tbd - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: Alter Sachse on 06/20/2017 02:31 pm
What results in the inclination ? 98° ?
Title: Re: tbd - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: input~2 on 06/20/2017 04:47 pm
What results in the inclination ? 98° ?
Could be (as hinted when comparing with GEO-IK-2 launch (http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=39948.msg1541198#msg1541198))
Title: Re: tbd - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: zubenelgenubi on 06/20/2017 08:24 pm
If current launch schedules, Russian and American, remain unchanged:

This payload's boost into orbit, with launch scheduled at 18:04 UTC, will still be in progress when the Falcon 9 carrying  BulgariaSat 1 lifts off approximately six minutes later.

Will the Soyuz Blok A still be in operation six minutes later?  Or will staging to the Blok I have already occurred?

***
In a related question, have two orbital launches ever overlapped before?
Title: Re: tbd - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: William Graham on 06/20/2017 09:26 pm
If current launch schedules, Russian and American, remain unchanged:

This payload's boost into orbit, with launch scheduled at 18:04 UTC, will still be in progress when the Falcon 9 carrying  BulgariaSat 1 lifts off approximately six minutes later.

[...]

In a related question, have two orbital launches ever overlapped before?

Yes. The shortest ever time between two launches was 82±30 seconds on 18 August 1960 - between a Thor-Agena from Vandenberg AFB and a Thor-Ablestar from Cape Canaveral. The Thor-Ablestar failed to orbit. The reason for the margin of error is that the Thor-Ablestar launch time is only known to the minute, while the Thor-Agena is known to the second. It could have been as little as 52 seconds, or up to 112.

The shortest time between two successful launches is 330±30 seconds (i.e. between 5 and 6 minutes), between a Tsyklon-2 launch from Baikonur and a Soyuz-U launch from Plesetsk on 16 September 1977. If Soyuz-2.1v launches at 18:04:39, and Falcon 9 launches at 18:10:00, the gap will be 321 seconds. So assuming success it would be within the margin of error for the shortest time between two successful launches.
Title: Re: tbd - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: Nicolas PILLET on 06/20/2017 10:18 pm
And remember that a Blue-Scout-2 suborbital launch occured from CCAFS less than one second after the launch of Gagarin !
Title: Re: tbd - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: Alter Sachse on 06/21/2017 04:32 pm
The Soyuz should be at the launch complex
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: Chris Bergin on 06/23/2017 03:59 pm
Is this one still on track to troll the Falcon 9 launch?
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: russianhalo117 on 06/23/2017 04:45 pm
Is this one still on track to troll the Falcon 9 launch?
AFAIK, Yes.
http://russianspaceweb.com/napryazhenie.html
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: Satori on 06/23/2017 05:59 pm
We are now 5 minutes from the expected launch time. Scanning Russian news sources for any info about the launch...
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: Satori on 06/23/2017 06:04 pm
Schedule launch time was 18:04:33UTC. So, a secretive Russian satellite should be on its way to orbit if everything went as planned.
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: Artyom. on 06/23/2017 06:16 pm
Launch http://www.interfax.ru/russia/567874
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: Satori on 06/23/2017 06:26 pm
Anatoly Zak is reporting that Volga space tug separated from 2nd stage of Soyuz-2-1v rocket.

https://twitter.com/RussianSpaceWeb/status/878317428991598594
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: Artyom. on 06/23/2017 06:28 pm
Confirmed. The Volga  successfully  separated from the launch vehicle.

http://tass.ru/kosmos/4362668
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: russianhalo117 on 06/23/2017 06:42 pm
Anatoly Zak is reporting that Volga space tug will continue its flight for ~1.5 hours before releasing its payload in its final orbit.
https://twitter.com/RussianSpaceWeb/status/878318541035913216
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: Magic on 06/23/2017 07:21 pm
Confirmed. The Volga  successfully  separated from the launch vehicle.

http://tass.ru/kosmos/4362668

Back in the good old Cold War days Tass used to report Kosmos numbers and orbital perimeters!
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: russianhalo117 on 06/23/2017 07:41 pm
Confirmed. The Volga  successfully  separated from the launch vehicle.

http://tass.ru/kosmos/4362668

Back in the good old Cold War days Tass used to report Kosmos numbers and orbital perimeters!
Payload separation from Volga has yet to occur but is coming up on the timeline.
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: russianhalo117 on 06/23/2017 07:54 pm
Anatoly Zak is reporting that Russian Ministry of Defense confirmed successful launch of Soyuz-2-1v rocket today with a military spacecraft!
https://twitter.com/RussianSpaceWeb/status/878338636948754433
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: input~2 on 06/23/2017 08:08 pm
http://function.mil.ru/news_page/country/more.htm?id=12130766@egNews (http://function.mil.ru/news_page/country/more.htm?id=12130766@egNews)
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: Chris Bergin on 06/23/2017 08:21 pm
Cool, but some launch photos would be great!
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: input~2 on 06/23/2017 08:42 pm
Defense Ministry satellite was launched into the target orbit (http://www.interfax.ru/russia/567883)
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: russianhalo117 on 06/23/2017 09:10 pm
fairing serial is 98 KS 1000-0 Launcher serial is No. 78072003
Payload is called Nivelir-ZU No.1 (14F150)

http://russianspaceweb.com/napryazhenie.html
Quote
...
The Nivelir project reaches launch pad?

The Russian government has released very little information about the upcoming flight, but it appears that it might be carrying the first of several 14F150 Napryazhenie geodetic satellites developed within the Nivelir-ZU project. The Russian word "napryazhenie" stands for voltage, while "nivelir" means level.
...
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: Stan Black on 06/23/2017 09:21 pm
fairing serial is 98 KS 1000-0 Launcher serial is No. 78072003
Payload is called Nivelir-ZU No.1 (14F150)

The rocket to be shipped was to have the same factory serial number of 3/138, so both should have the same tail number.
http://www.zakupki.gov.ru/223/purchase/public/download/download.html?id=19004333
http://www.zakupki.gov.ru/223/purchase/public/purchase/info/documents.html?noticeId=3248479
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: Chris Bergin on 06/23/2017 09:30 pm
William Graham article - working on what the payload could be about!

https://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2017/06/soyuz-2-1v-conducts-clandestine-military-launch/
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: jcm on 06/23/2017 10:50 pm
fairing serial is 98 KS 1000-0 Launcher serial is No. 78072003
Payload is called Nivelir-ZU No.1 (14F150)

http://russianspaceweb.com/napryazhenie.html
Quote
...
The Nivelir project reaches launch pad?

The Russian government has released very little information about the upcoming flight, but it appears that it might be carrying the first of several 14F150 Napryazhenie geodetic satellites developed within the Nivelir-ZU project. The Russian word "napryazhenie" stands for voltage, while "nivelir" means level.
...

Rather than being called Napryazhenie No. 1? Anatoly's page seemed to imply Nivelir-ZU is the broader project
and the satellite is Napryazhenie.
Any indication of Volga serial number?
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: russianhalo117 on 06/23/2017 10:53 pm
fairing serial is 98 KS 1000-0 Launcher serial is No. 78072003
Payload is called Nivelir-ZU No.1 (14F150)

http://russianspaceweb.com/napryazhenie.html
Quote
...
The Nivelir project reaches launch pad?

The Russian government has released very little information about the upcoming flight, but it appears that it might be carrying the first of several 14F150 Napryazhenie geodetic satellites developed within the Nivelir-ZU project. The Russian word "napryazhenie" stands for voltage, while "nivelir" means level.
...

Rather than being called Napryazhenie No. 1? Anatoly's page seemed to imply Nivelir-ZU is the broader project
and the satellite is Napryazhenie.
Any indication of Volga serial number?
No photographic evidence of serial but Stan might know.
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: Lewis007 on 06/24/2017 06:41 am
Attached is a video of the roll-out + launch.
Source: http://ren.tv/novosti/2017-06-24/opublikovano-video-zapuska-rakety-soyuz-so-sputnikom-minoborony-rf
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: B. Hendrickx on 06/24/2017 08:26 am
http://tass.ru/kosmos/4362793

The press service of the Ministry of Defence describes the payload as follows :

"The satellite is a space platform on which several types of payloads can be installed. The payload [for this mission] is equipment for remote sensing of the Earth and equipment to photograph objects in space".

While "remote sensing" may still be consistent with a geodetic mission, photographing objects in space clearly is not.



Title: Re: Kosmos 2519 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: Artyom. on 06/24/2017 08:27 am
Video of the launch on YouTube

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ttc8ADF96Os
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: Galactic Penguin SST on 06/24/2017 09:44 am
3 objects (satellite, Volga and 2nd stage(?)) found by NORAD; satellite in 660 km high, 98.05 deg. inclination SSO.
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: Alter Sachse on 06/24/2017 11:05 am
spaceflight101 article:
http://spaceflight101.com/soyuz-2-1v-lifts-off-with-secret-military-satellite/
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: input~2 on 06/24/2017 11:53 am
3 objects (satellite, Volga and 2nd stage(?)) found by NORAD; satellite in 660 km high, 98.05 deg. inclination SSO.
More details below:

2017-037A/42798 in 654 x 669 km x 98.05°
2017-037B/42799 in 652 x 669 km x 98.05°
2017-037C/42800 in 284 x 650 km x 98.06°
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: input~2 on 06/24/2017 02:24 pm
Possible Volga reentry zone?

SOUTH PACIFIC.
1. HAZARDOUS OPERATIONS SPACE DEBRIS
231800Z TO 240800Z AND 241800Z TO 250800Z JUN
IN AREA BETWEEN
30-00S 60-00S AND 090-00W 175-00W.
2. CANCEL THIS MSG 250900Z JUN 17.//

Authority: NAVAREA XIV 55/17 192115Z JUN 17.

Title: Re: Kosmos 2519 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: russianhalo117 on 06/24/2017 02:33 pm
Possible Volga reentry zone?

SOUTH PACIFIC.
1. HAZARDOUS OPERATIONS SPACE DEBRIS
231800Z TO 240800Z AND 241800Z TO 250800Z JUN
IN AREA BETWEEN
30-00S 60-00S AND 090-00W 175-00W.
2. CANCEL THIS MSG 250900Z JUN 17.//

Authority: NAVAREA XIV 55/17 192115Z JUN 17.


Volga or Second Stage.
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: edkyle99 on 06/24/2017 04:12 pm
3 objects (satellite, Volga and 2nd stage(?)) found by NORAD; satellite in 660 km high, 98.05 deg. inclination SSO.
More details below:

2017-037A/42798 in 654 x 669 km x 98.05°
2017-037B/42799 in 652 x 669 km x 98.05°
2017-037C/42800 in 284 x 650 km x 98.06°
This is sun sync, or nearly-so.  Don't most geodetic satellites reside in other orbit types?

 - Ed Kyle
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: Alter Sachse on 06/24/2017 05:41 pm
3 objects (satellite, Volga and 2nd stage(?)) found by NORAD; satellite in 660 km high, 98.05 deg. inclination SSO.
More details below:

2017-037A/42798 in 654 x 669 km x 98.05°
2017-037B/42799 in 652 x 669 km x 98.05°
2017-037C/42800 in 284 x 650 km x 98.06°
This is sun sync, or nearly-so.  Don't most geodetic satellites reside in other orbit types?

 - Ed Kyle
I'm not sure it's a geodetic satellite.
see reply #36:
"The payload [for this mission] is equipment for remote sensing of the Earth and equipment to photograph objects in space".
sun sync is suitable for "remote sensing"
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: Alter Sachse on 06/24/2017 06:06 pm
3 objects (satellite, Volga and 2nd stage(?)) found by NORAD; satellite in 660 km high, 98.05 deg. inclination SSO.
More details below:

2017-037A/42798 in 654 x 669 km x 98.05°
2017-037B/42799 in 652 x 669 km x 98.05°
2017-037C/42800 in 284 x 650 km x 98.06°
This is sun sync, or nearly-so.  Don't most geodetic satellites reside in other orbit types?

 - Ed Kyle
I'm not sure it's a geodetic satellite.
see reply #36:
"The payload [for this mission] is equipment for remote sensing of the Earth and equipment to photograph objects in space".
sun sync is suitable for "remote sensing"
Wikipedia (German version):
"The selected orbit height of the satellites depends on the application spectrum and is usually at least 800 km."
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geod%C3%A4tischer_Satellit
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: Magic on 06/24/2017 06:35 pm
With the Teledyne Brown 1980’s “Cosmos Calculator” it shows a flight with 98° - 600 x 660 km perimeters as Remote Sensing missions, but launched from Tyuratam (due to Cold War launch angle restrictions).
A military version of a Meteor-Priroda now using Plesetsk perhaps?
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: input~2 on 06/24/2017 06:38 pm
Possible Volga reentry zone?

SOUTH PACIFIC.
1. HAZARDOUS OPERATIONS SPACE DEBRIS
231800Z TO 240800Z AND 241800Z TO 250800Z JUN
IN AREA BETWEEN
30-00S 60-00S AND 090-00W 175-00W.
2. CANCEL THIS MSG 250900Z JUN 17.//

Authority: NAVAREA XIV 55/17 192115Z JUN 17.


Volga or Second Stage.
I would think Volga reentry is more probable in the timeframe indicated in the navigational warning above, since I would expect Volga to have conducted a deorbiting burn for reentry as was the case in past similar launches

Title: Re: Kosmos 2519 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: input~2 on 06/24/2017 07:32 pm
 Anatoly Zak‏ @RussianSpaceWeb 2 hours ago

Sources: Volga stage performed end-of-mission operations after #Soyuz-2-1v launch yesterday, data shows. DETAILS: http://www.russianspaceweb.com/napryazhenie.html#orbit …
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: Alter Sachse on 06/24/2017 07:39 pm
Soviet/russian geodetic satellites
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: Phillip Clark on 06/24/2017 08:13 pm
With the Teledyne Brown 1980’s “Cosmos Calculator” it shows a flight with 98° - 600 x 660 km perimeters as Remote Sensing missions, but launched from Tyuratam (due to Cold War launch angle restrictions).
A military version of a Meteor-Priroda now using Plesetsk perhaps?

Although retired, Nick Johnson will be delighted to know that this is still in use!
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: Liss on 06/24/2017 08:54 pm
K2519 is almost in plane with 2013-028A. Don't know if this is intentional or not.

Title: Re: Kosmos 2519 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: Alter Sachse on 06/24/2017 09:27 pm
K2519 is almost in plane with 2013-028A. Don't know if this is intentional or not.
That was Kosmos 2486 ("Persona 2")
98.30° 99.76 min 714 km 733 km
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: Alter Sachse on 06/24/2017 10:21 pm
Kosmos 2519 98.05 97.97 654 669
Resurs-O1     98.05 97.98 661 663 (launched 4.11.1994)
Almost the same orbit ...
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: Stan Black on 06/25/2017 08:58 am
fairing serial is 98 KS 1000-0 Launcher serial is No. 78072003
Payload is called Nivelir-ZU No.1 (14F150)

http://russianspaceweb.com/napryazhenie.html
Quote
...
The Nivelir project reaches launch pad?

The Russian government has released very little information about the upcoming flight, but it appears that it might be carrying the first of several 14F150 Napryazhenie geodetic satellites developed within the Nivelir-ZU project. The Russian word "napryazhenie" stands for voltage, while "nivelir" means level.
...

‘ZU’ is a component?

From Progress procurement plan of 2013 there are four entries:-
Quote
Поставка ЭРИ ОП и ЭРИ ИП в обеспечение комплектования ЗУ ОКР «Нивелир»
Изготовление и поставка модулей ЗУ для изделия 14Ф150 (ОКР «Нивелир-ЗУ»)
Поставка ЭРИ ИП в обеспечение омплектования ЗУ для ЭО КА «Напряжение»
Изготовление и поставка модулей ЗУ для ЭО КА «Напряжение»
ОКР - опытно-конструкторские работы
КА is the abbreviation for satellite.

‘Nivelir-ZU’ is the name of the work, not the satellite?

In 2014:-
Quote
Поставка модулей ХП-М, ЦСВВ, ЗУ в обеспечение комплектования ОКР «Нивелир-Л-ЗУ»
Поставка ЭРИ ОП и ЭРИ ИП в обеспечение комплектования ЗУ ОКР «Нивелир»
Поставка ЭРИ ИП в обеспечение комплектования ЗУ для ЭО КА «Напряжение»

From 2015:-
Quote
Модули ХП-М, ЦСВВ, ЗУ для изделия КА 14Ф155
Поставка модулей ХП-М, ЗУ, ЦСВВ для образца технологического блока ЗУ для стенда КА 14Ф150

Progress procurement plans can be found here:-
http://www.samspace.ru/zakupki/plany_zakupok/

Further indication Nivelir-L and Napryazhenie-L are different satellites:-
Quote
1.3. В целях расширения рынка сбыта выпускаемых приборов проводится согласование
протоколов разрешённого применения на применение приборов на КА «Спектр-РГ», «Нивелир-Л», «Напряжение-Л», «Резонанс», 14Ф01.
http://www.geofizika-cosmos.ru/assets/files/otchyotnost/godovoj-otchet-2013.pdf

Just to confirm Mr. Pillet’s information that 14Ф150 was a payload for a Soyuz rocket, comes from TSENKI procurement plan of 2015:-
Quote
Дооборудование СК 17П32-С4 под КА 14Ф150
http://www.zakupki.gov.ru/223/plan/public/download/download.html?id=1677613 http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=26990.msg1339253#msg1339253

Also possibly the connection with Lavochkin can be found from this entry in Progress procurement plan:-
Quote
Изготовление и поставка модулей ХП-М, ЦСВВ, ЗУ для аппаратуры МКА-ФКИ

As to its function, the only piece of information is this:-
Quote
4 ЦНИИ МО РФ совместно с кооперацией подготовлена и представлена заказчику тематическая карточка на проведение базовой НИР «Нивелир-П» в 2014- 2015 годы «Комплексные исследования путей создания многоярусной космиче- ской системы мониторинга геодезических параметров Земли в интересах обеспечения стратегических сил и высокоточного оружия. Экспериментальная отработка ключевых элементов системы».
http://www.glonass-center.ru/aboutIAC/Report%20by%20Kosenko%20Zvonar_3.pdf

Is it possible there are two Nivelir projects?
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: Liss on 06/25/2017 10:50 am
fairing serial is 98 KS 1000-0 Launcher serial is No. 78072003
Payload is called Nivelir-ZU No.1 (14F150)

http://russianspaceweb.com/napryazhenie.html
Quote
...
The Nivelir project reaches launch pad?

The Russian government has released very little information about the upcoming flight, but it appears that it might be carrying the first of several 14F150 Napryazhenie geodetic satellites developed within the Nivelir-ZU project. The Russian word "napryazhenie" stands for voltage, while "nivelir" means level.
...

‘ZU’ is a component?

From Progress procurement plan of 2013 there are four entries:-
Quote
Поставка ЭРИ ОП и ЭРИ ИП в обеспечение комплектования ЗУ ОКР «Нивелир»
Изготовление и поставка модулей ЗУ для изделия 14Ф150 (ОКР «Нивелир-ЗУ»)
Поставка ЭРИ ИП в обеспечение омплектования ЗУ для ЭО КА «Напряжение»
Изготовление и поставка модулей ЗУ для ЭО КА «Напряжение»
ОКР - опытно-конструкторские работы
КА is the abbreviation for satellite.

‘Nivelir-ZU’ is the name of the work, not the satellite?

In 2014:-
Quote
Поставка модулей ХП-М, ЦСВВ, ЗУ в обеспечение комплектования ОКР «Нивелир-Л-ЗУ»
Поставка ЭРИ ОП и ЭРИ ИП в обеспечение комплектования ЗУ ОКР «Нивелир»
Поставка ЭРИ ИП в обеспечение комплектования ЗУ для ЭО КА «Напряжение»

From 2015:-
Quote
Модули ХП-М, ЦСВВ, ЗУ для изделия КА 14Ф155
Поставка модулей ХП-М, ЗУ, ЦСВВ для образца технологического блока ЗУ для стенда КА 14Ф150
In my ineducated opinion, ХП-М, ЦСВВ, ЗУ modules are some low-level electronic components within ЗУ block which probably means запоминающее устройство (memory unit) and as such exists in different configurations within many spacecraft and ground support equipment items.
So it doesn't make sense to think that Nivelir-ZU may be a spacecraft name or a project name. Judging from the quotes above, it can me a name for a very small work of the larger Nivelir project. And NPP OPTEKS (Being a subsidiary of RKTs Progress) orders this ЗУ block to use in a larger assembly (maybe onboard computer or control system) to be delivered to a producer of a spacecraft.
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: russianhalo117 on 06/25/2017 04:17 pm
fairing serial is 98 KS 1000-0 Launcher serial is No. 78072003
Payload is called Nivelir-ZU No.1 (14F150)

http://russianspaceweb.com/napryazhenie.html
Quote
...
The Nivelir project reaches launch pad?

The Russian government has released very little information about the upcoming flight, but it appears that it might be carrying the first of several 14F150 Napryazhenie geodetic satellites developed within the Nivelir-ZU project. The Russian word "napryazhenie" stands for voltage, while "nivelir" means level.
...

‘ZU’ is a component?

From Progress procurement plan of 2013 there are four entries:-
Quote
Поставка ЭРИ ОП и ЭРИ ИП в обеспечение комплектования ЗУ ОКР «Нивелир»
Изготовление и поставка модулей ЗУ для изделия 14Ф150 (ОКР «Нивелир-ЗУ»)
Поставка ЭРИ ИП в обеспечение омплектования ЗУ для ЭО КА «Напряжение»
Изготовление и поставка модулей ЗУ для ЭО КА «Напряжение»
ОКР - опытно-конструкторские работы
КА is the abbreviation for satellite.

‘Nivelir-ZU’ is the name of the work, not the satellite?

In 2014:-
Quote
Поставка модулей ХП-М, ЦСВВ, ЗУ в обеспечение комплектования ОКР «Нивелир-Л-ЗУ»
Поставка ЭРИ ОП и ЭРИ ИП в обеспечение комплектования ЗУ ОКР «Нивелир»
Поставка ЭРИ ИП в обеспечение комплектования ЗУ для ЭО КА «Напряжение»

From 2015:-
Quote
Модули ХП-М, ЦСВВ, ЗУ для изделия КА 14Ф155
Поставка модулей ХП-М, ЗУ, ЦСВВ для образца технологического блока ЗУ для стенда КА 14Ф150

Progress procurement plans can be found here:-
http://www.samspace.ru/zakupki/plany_zakupok/

Further indication Nivelir-L and Napryazhenie-L are different satellites:-
Quote
1.3. В целях расширения рынка сбыта выпускаемых приборов проводится согласование
протоколов разрешённого применения на применение приборов на КА «Спектр-РГ», «Нивелир-Л», «Напряжение-Л», «Резонанс», 14Ф01.
http://www.geofizika-cosmos.ru/assets/files/otchyotnost/godovoj-otchet-2013.pdf

Just to confirm Mr. Pillet’s information that 14Ф150 was a payload for a Soyuz rocket, comes from TSENKI procurement plan of 2015:-
Quote
Дооборудование СК 17П32-С4 под КА 14Ф150
http://www.zakupki.gov.ru/223/plan/public/download/download.html?id=1677613 http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=26990.msg1339253#msg1339253

Also possibly the connection with Lavochkin can be found from this entry in Progress procurement plan:-
Quote
Изготовление и поставка модулей ХП-М, ЦСВВ, ЗУ для аппаратуры МКА-ФКИ

As to its function, the only piece of information is this:-
Quote
4 ЦНИИ МО РФ совместно с кооперацией подготовлена и представлена заказчику тематическая карточка на проведение базовой НИР «Нивелир-П» в 2014- 2015 годы «Комплексные исследования путей создания многоярусной космиче- ской системы мониторинга геодезических параметров Земли в интересах обеспечения стратегических сил и высокоточного оружия. Экспериментальная отработка ключевых элементов системы».
http://www.glonass-center.ru/aboutIAC/Report%20by%20Kosenko%20Zvonar_3.pdf

Is it possible there are two Nivelir projects?
yes.
Nivelir-ZU (RKTs Progress with NPO Lavochkin) and Nivelir-MNK-OZS (ISS Reshetnev) are the two known projects at this time although a third project via RKK Energia is hinted in documentation from time to time.
http://russianspaceweb.com/napryazhenie.html
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: Liss on 06/25/2017 05:06 pm
http://www.glonass-center.ru/aboutIAC/Report%20by%20Kosenko%20Zvonar_3.pdf
Is it possible there are two Nivelir projects?
yes.
Nivelir-ZU (RKTs Progress with NPO Lavochkin) and Nivelir-MNK-OZS (ISS Reshetnev) are the two known projects at this time although a third project via RKK Energia is hinted in documentation from time to time.
http://russianspaceweb.com/napryazhenie.html
Well, you would then talk about six projects, namely:
Nivelir
Nivelir-ZU
Nivelir-L
Nivelir-L-ZU
Nivelir-P
Nivelir-MNK-OZS.
It's too many for me -- I persume there is one or two main project(s) and a lot of subprojects, both listed above and still unknown.
Also, I absolutely don't see any relation between Nivelir-L and Napryazheniye-L projects other than NPP OPTEKS ordered some electronic components for both.


Title: Re: Kosmos 2519 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: zubenelgenubi on 06/25/2017 11:03 pm
The NK-33A engine on this launch didn't blow up.

Would it be correct to say that the refurbishments on these old NK-33's appear to have been more successful than Aerojet's modifications of the engines purchased from the same stock to create their AJ-26's?

Or is it too soon/too small a sample to draw definitive conclusions?
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: edkyle99 on 06/26/2017 03:15 am
The NK-33A engine on this launch didn't blow up.

Would it be correct to say that the refurbishments on these old NK-33's appear to have been more successful than Aerojet's modifications of the engines purchased from the same stock to create their AJ-26's?

Or is it too soon/too small a sample to draw definitive conclusions?
NK-33/AJ-26 didn't blow up during the first four Antares launches either, so too soon to say.

 - Ed Kyle
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: Alter Sachse on 06/26/2017 10:38 am
Kosmos 2519 98.05 97.97 654 669
Resurs-O1     98.05 97.98 661 663 (launched 4.11.1994)
Almost the same orbit ...
Could it be optical reconnaissance?
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: Kosmos2001 on 06/26/2017 01:09 pm
Anatoly Zak just posted something as interesting as worrying:

Fueling crew had to literally run from the pad, after a knife-edge countdown of #Soyuz-2-1v rocket Friday. DETAILS: http://russianspaceweb.com/napryazhenie.html#prelaunch
Source: Anatoly's Zak twitter (https://twitter.com/RussianSpaceWeb/status/879323485973118977)
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: input~2 on 06/26/2017 01:13 pm
According to latest TLE, Volga hasn't been deorbited, it was still in a 660 km/98° orbit this morning
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: edkyle99 on 06/26/2017 01:23 pm
According to latest TLE, Volga hasn't been deorbited, it was still in a 660 km/98° orbit this morning
Anatoly Zak reports that "according to the telemetry received by ground controllers, the breaking maneuver of the Volga space tug was performed at scheduled time at the end of the mission. The data also showed that the Volga successfully received a command to deactivate all systems aboard the stage, Russian industry sources said."

Could it be two satellites and Volga in the elliptical orbit?

 - Ed Kyle
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: Liss on 06/26/2017 01:28 pm
According to latest TLE, Volga hasn't been deorbited, it was still in a 660 km/98° orbit this morning
Anatoly Zak reports that "according to the telemetry received by ground controllers, the breaking maneuver of the Volga space tug was performed at scheduled time at the end of the mission. The data also showed that the Volga successfully received a command to deactivate all systems aboard the stage, Russian industry sources said."

Could it be two satellites and Volga in the elliptical orbit?

 - Ed Kyle
The object in elliptical orbit is the Soyuz-2.1V second stage.
The two objects in circular orbit should be two satellites or a satellite and an operational fragment provided the information is reliable on the successful Volga deorbit.
Title: Re: Soyuz-2.1v - 23th June 2017
Post by: Alter Sachse on 06/26/2017 01:42 pm
quote Stan Black


"So article 14Ф150 is satellite «Nivelir-L»?

Maybe it is a double satellite, №1 and №2?"

The thought was already there...
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: gosnold on 06/26/2017 06:01 pm
Kosmos 2519 98.05 97.97 654 669
Resurs-O1     98.05 97.98 661 663 (launched 4.11.1994)
Almost the same orbit ...
Could it be optical reconnaissance?

Local time of the Descending node is 10:00 am solar, so it's certainly a possibility. In fact, it seems to be a replacement of Persona 2:

K2519 is almost in plane with 2013-028A. Don't know if this is intentional or not.
That was Kosmos 2486 ("Persona 2")
98.30° 99.76 min 714 km 733 km

(https://i.imgur.com/Hm4aSE7.jpg)
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: Stan Black on 06/26/2017 06:28 pm
In my ineducated opinion, ХП-М, ЦСВВ, ЗУ modules are some low-level electronic components within ЗУ block which probably means запоминающее устройство (memory unit) and as such exists in different configurations within many spacecraft and ground support equipment items.
So it doesn't make sense to think that Nivelir-ZU may be a spacecraft name or a project name. Judging from the quotes above, it can me a name for a very small work of the larger Nivelir project. And NPP OPTEKS (Being a subsidiary of RKTs Progress) orders this ЗУ block to use in a larger assembly (maybe onboard computer or control system) to be delivered to a producer of a spacecraft.

I am trying to understand what are ХП-М and ЦСВВ. They are also connected with Lavochkin’s MKA-FKI based satellites? There is also a link between Lavochkin and the 14Ф150.
http://www.zakupki.gov.ru/223/purchase/public/purchase/info/common-info.html?noticeId=273020

Also what version of MKA-FKI was to be used for remote sensing in this attachment?
http://www.unoosa.org/pdf/pres/stsc2012/2012ind-06E.pdf
 - note the picture of Persona in that attachment?
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: B. Hendrickx on 06/26/2017 08:11 pm
Also what version of MKA-FKI was to be used for remote sensing in this attachment?
http://www.unoosa.org/pdf/pres/stsc2012/2012ind-06E.pdf
 - note the picture of Persona in that attachment?

The first MKA-FKI, launched on 22 July 2012, was a remote sensing satellite (also known as Zond-PP).

I think the satellite on the last page is the same one shown on the first page : Resurs-DK with the Pamela payload mounted on top.
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: Liss on 06/26/2017 08:28 pm
There is also a link between Lavochkin and the 14Ф150.
http://www.zakupki.gov.ru/223/purchase/public/purchase/info/common-info.html?noticeId=273020
Not only a link but the proof 14Ф150 is/was being assembled and tested at Lavockin (just converted to a joint stock company AO NPO Lavochkin BTW). But there is another question: how do we know that K2519 is 14Ф150?
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: Stan Black on 06/26/2017 09:24 pm
There is also a link between Lavochkin and the 14Ф150.
http://www.zakupki.gov.ru/223/purchase/public/purchase/info/common-info.html?noticeId=273020
Not only a link but the proof 14Ф150 is/was being assembled and tested at Lavockin (just converted to a joint stock company AO NPO Lavochkin BTW). But there is another question: how do we know that K2519 is 14Ф150?


Several tenuous things:-
Mr. Pillet identified it.
It was identified in procurement plans from TsENKI as a Soyuz payload. All others are accounted for?
The tender for insurance covering transportation of the rocket did not identify the payload, unlike for 2/138 which was for Kanopus.
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: Nicolas PILLET on 06/26/2017 09:53 pm
Mr. Pillet identified it.

No, I've never identified Cosmos-2519 as being 14F150.

All that I know is that in the Soyuz launch planning that I published about two years ago, there was "14F150 n°2" listed on a Soyuz-2.1v.

But this was a long time ago, many things may have changed in the plan. I have absolutely no element showing that Cosmos-2519 is 14F150.
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: B. Hendrickx on 06/26/2017 10:15 pm
Unless I’ve missed something, the evidence from the procurement documents that links Nivelir/Napryazhenie/14F150  to this launch looks rather flimsy.

1) there is no clear evidence from the documents that Nivelir and Napryazhenie are part of one and the same project. The names themselves are not suggestive of a related mission either (although I fully realize we shouldn’t read too much into Russian satellite names). Nivelir means “dumpy level” (logical for a geodetic satellite) and Napryazhenie, translated by Anatoly Zak as “voltage”, is actually more often used in the meaning “tension” (including the figurative meanings “nervous feeling” or “no trust”).

2) Nivelir is confirmed in one of the documents to be a geodetic project, but the Sun-synchronous orbit used by Kosmos-2519 is not indicative of a geodetic mission.

3) One of the documents links the designator 14F150 to Nivelir and another says one of the Soyuz launch pads (17P32-S4) at Plesetsk was to be modified for 14F150, confirming that 14F150 is to be launched by a Soyuz-type rocket (although not necessarily the Soyuz-2.1v). Apparently, the reasoning was that Kosmos-2519 is most likely 14F150 (Nivelir) because that is the only Soyuz-launched classified military payload identified in the procurement documents that had not yet been launched. But, as I just mentioned, it doesn’t like Kosmos-2519 is on a geodetic mission…

So, unless Anatoly Zak has inside information that we don’t know about, what evidence is left that Kosmos-2519 is  14F150/Nivelir/Napryazhenie?

Let’s not forget that this is what the Ministry of Defense has officially said about the payload

http://tass.ru/kosmos/4362793

"The satellite is a space platform on which several types of payloads can be installed. The payload [for this mission] is equipment for remote sensing of the Earth and equipment to photograph objects in space".

It seems hard to combine both of those functions on one and the same satellite (especially a relatively small one like this), but the orbital behaviour of Kosmos-2519 does seem to indicate that both missions are plausible.
The Sun-synchronous orbit is suggestive of a remote sensing mission and the fact that Kosmos-2519 in the same orbital plane as Kosmos-2486/Persona-2  may mean that (for whatever reason) it may perform a  rendezvous with that satellite. If a second (unannounced) satellite is indeed involved, one could be on a remote sensing mission, the other on an inspection mission. This, of course, brings back memories of the mysterious payloads (Kosmos-2491, 2499, 2504) launched piggyback on three Rokot missions in 2013-2015 that were reportedly also on simulated inspection missions and the first two of which were not announced after launch.

It will be interesting to see the coming days if Kosmos-2519 gets any closer to Kosmos-2486. I'm not sure if this is always up to date, but you can track the position of both satellites on n2yo.com. 
 
The Ministry of Defence press release also says the satellite uses a platform (bus) that can be used for other payloads. This could be a completely new, unidentified bus, but it might just as well be a known bus. Any speculation what that might be? The MSS bus used by Bars-M looks too heavy (Soyuz-2.1v can launch just 1,400 kg into SSO and Bars-M weighs about 4 tons).  One possible candidate that comes to mind is the bus that PO Polyot built for the military Kanopus-ST remote sensing satellite (lost on the first Soyuz-2-1v launch in 2015), but there are probably other candidates as well.
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: apachhi on 06/27/2017 06:52 am
Closer to Kosmos 2519 (2017-037A)  with APRIZESAT 5 (2011-044E), 27.06.2017, 09:37:02 UTC, 593 m.
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: input~2 on 06/27/2017 08:16 am
Closer to Kosmos 2519 (2017-037A)  with APRIZESAT 5 (2011-044E), 27.06.2017, 09:37:02 UTC, 593 m.
Close enough to take a good picture ;D
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: Alter Sachse on 06/27/2017 10:41 am
Closer to Kosmos 2519 (2017-037A)  with APRIZESAT 5 (2011-044E), 27.06.2017, 09:37:02 UTC, 593 m.
Close enough to take a good picture ;D
Now I understand reply #36
"The payload is equipment for remote sensing of the Earth and equipment to photograph objects in space" :) :)
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: Phillip Clark on 06/27/2017 01:40 pm
Isn't it fun to have something that's unexplained and secret again?   Just like the "good old days" before perestroyka and glasnost. :)
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: Alter Sachse on 06/27/2017 02:22 pm
Isn't it fun to have something that's unexplained and secret again?   Just like the "good old days" before perestroyka and glasnost. :)
We move backwards... :(
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: Nicolas PILLET on 06/27/2017 02:47 pm
Isn't it fun to have something that's unexplained and secret again?   Just like the "good old days" before perestroyka and glasnost. :)

Maybe in forty years, there will be a full-scale mock-up of Cosmos-2519 in the Moscow Memorial Museum of Cosmonautics, and it will be very funny to compare the informations with this thread... :D
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: Phillip Clark on 06/27/2017 02:57 pm
Isn't it fun to have something that's unexplained and secret again?   Just like the "good old days" before perestroyka and glasnost. :)
Maybe in forty years, there will be a full-scale mock-up of Cosmos-2519 in the Moscow Memorial Museum of Cosmonautics, and it will be very funny to compare the informations with this thread... :D

Ah, the nostalgia for the days when one new rocket engine would be revealed and we could design whole new launchers around it!   These days people can't imagine the fun that we old-timers had in the early 1980s and earlier.
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: Stan Black on 06/27/2017 04:00 pm
I wonder if the connection between Nivelir and the geodesy mission is the Karat-200 platform/bus from Lavochkin?
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: Stan Black on 06/27/2017 04:09 pm
http://www.glonass-center.ru/aboutIAC/Report%20by%20Kosenko%20Zvonar_3.pdf
Is it possible there are two Nivelir projects?
yes.
Nivelir-ZU (RKTs Progress with NPO Lavochkin) and Nivelir-MNK-OZS (ISS Reshetnev) are the two known projects at this time although a third project via RKK Energia is hinted in documentation from time to time.
http://russianspaceweb.com/napryazhenie.html
Well, you would then talk about six projects, namely:
Nivelir
Nivelir-ZU
Nivelir-L
Nivelir-L-ZU
Nivelir-P
Nivelir-MNK-OZS.
It's too many for me -- I persume there is one or two main project(s) and a lot of subprojects, both listed above and still unknown.
Also, I absolutely don't see any relation between Nivelir-L and Napryazheniye-L projects other than NPP OPTEKS ordered some electronic components for both.

Quote
НОУ УНПК МФТИ является соисполнителем 2 научно-исследовательских ра-бот, выполняемых МФТИ (шифр «Нивелир» и «Напряжение», общий объем кото-рых составляет 13 500 тыс. руб.)
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: Liss on 06/27/2017 09:39 pm
As to its function, the only piece of information is this:-
Quote
4 ЦНИИ МО РФ совместно с кооперацией подготовлена и представлена заказчику тематическая карточка на проведение базовой НИР «Нивелир-П» в 2014- 2015 годы «Комплексные исследования путей создания многоярусной космиче- ской системы мониторинга геодезических параметров Земли в интересах обеспечения стратегических сил и высокоточного оружия. Экспериментальная отработка ключевых элементов системы».
http://www.glonass-center.ru/aboutIAC/Report%20by%20Kosenko%20Zvonar_3.pdf

Is it possible there are two Nivelir projects?

Speaking of this 2013 presentation, AO ISS has proposed three-part geodetic system with one or two GEO-IK3 spacecraft at 1000 km, a couple of GRACE type satelites at 500 km and one GOCE type satellite with gradientometer at 250-300 km. Neither of these was to be launched before the end of 2018 to a 650 km orbit.
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: B. Hendrickx on 07/01/2017 09:15 pm
Current tracking data (for instance via n2yo.com) shows Cosmos-2519 trailing Cosmos-2486 (Persona-2) by just a couple of minutes. Being in a slightly lower orbit, Cosmos-2519 should soon overtake it. 

On 27 June there was a close pass (593 m) between Cosmos-2519 and APRIZESAT 5 (2011-044E) (as reported in this thread in Reply #73). I'm not sure if the mutual velocity of the satellites would have allowed Cosmos-2519 to snap any pictures of it, but isn't this looking more and more like some type of inspection mission? 
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: Alter Sachse on 07/01/2017 10:33 pm
Current tracking data (for instance via n2yo.com) shows Cosmos-2519 trailing Cosmos-2486 (Persona-2) by just a couple of minutes. Being in a slightly lower orbit, Cosmos-2519 should soon overtake it. 

On 27 June there was a close pass (593 m) between Cosmos-2519 and APRIZESAT 5 (2011-044E) (as reported in this thread in Reply #73). I'm not sure if the mutual velocity of the satellites would have allowed Cosmos-2519 to snap any pictures of it, but isn't this looking more and more like some type of inspection mission?
We must observe whether Cosmos 2519 changes its orbit.
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: Phillip Clark on 07/13/2017 03:50 am
I see no connection between the Cosmos 2519 satellite and the second Kvarts/Persona-1 mission, Cosmos 2486.

All three of the Kvarts satellites are in orbits above 700 km, while Cosmos 2519 has remained in a 653-670 km orbit (+/-1 km), with no sign of an orbital manoeuvre.
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: Phillip Clark on 08/09/2017 10:25 am
I have just been doing my monthly check on certain satellites that I am monitoring in some detail and I have noted that Cosmos 2519 has manoeuvred.

The initial orbit from the TLEs was 98.05 deg, 97.97 minutes, 654-669 km.

By July 26 the altitude had evolved to 652-671 km (maybe some tiny manoeuvres during the intervening period or maybe orbital eccentricity inaccuracies in the TLEs) and on July 27 it was tracked in a 650-671 km orbit.

During August 1-3 the orbit dropped from 651-671 km to 649-669 km.   This also saw a small change in the orbital inclination, from 98.04 deg to 97.98 deg: on August 4 there was a further inclination change to 97.94 deg.

No further manoeuvres can be detected with confidence from the TLE data to date.
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: Danderman on 08/10/2017 07:15 am
The last "maneuver" is consistent with natural decay, as well as imprecision in tracking.
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: Liss on 08/10/2017 07:49 am
The last "maneuver" is consistent with natural decay, as well as imprecision in tracking.
I don't think so. Changes in mean height and inclination are intentional and easily seen in graphs.

Title: Re: Kosmos 2519 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: Phillip Clark on 08/10/2017 08:57 am
The attached Excel spreadsheet is my own version of Igor's graphs.   Interesting that while the orbital period originally remained almost constant, apogee slowly increased and perigee slowly decreased before the manoeuvres started: of course, this could be an artifact of the TLEs homing in on the correct eccentricity, the orbital parameter which is always difficult to determine for near-circular orbits.   In any case, these graphs clearly show where there were manoeuvres and where there was natural orbital evolution.
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: Danderman on 08/10/2017 03:56 pm
Actually, it looks the opposite to me; it looks like the spacecraft was actively maintaining its orbit until about Aug 3, and then stop doing so, allowing natural decay to slowly reduce apogee.
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: Liss on 08/10/2017 04:01 pm
Actually, it looks the opposite to me; it looks like the spacecraft was actively maintaining its orbit until about Aug 3, and then stop doing so, allowing natural decay to slowly reduce apogee.
Can you explain changes in inclination too?
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: Alter Sachse on 08/10/2017 04:50 pm
At this level the orbit is stable for an extended period of time.
I think the changes are "maneuvers"
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: Phillip Clark on 08/10/2017 05:04 pm
At this level the orbit is stable for an extended period of time.
I think the changes are "maneuvers"

Also, manoeuvres are indicated by discontinuities in the graph data, while natural evolution results in smooth, continuous curves.
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: Magic on 08/12/2017 04:21 am
Satellite Digest - 536 listing of Kosmos 2519  note 35: "...would appear to be equivalent of the US SBSS satellite."
Spaceflight Vol60 September 2017 p.346
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: Alter Sachse on 08/12/2017 05:12 am
Satellite Digest note 35: "...would appear to be equivalent of the US SBSS satellite."
Spaceflight Vol60 September 2017 p.346
The sun-synchronous orbit is suitable for this
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: B. Hendrickx on 08/13/2017 12:25 am
Satellite Digest - 536 listing of Kosmos 2519  note 35: "...would appear to be equivalent of the US SBSS satellite."
Spaceflight Vol60 September 2017 p.346

That assessment is probably based on what the Russian Ministry of Defence has officially said about the satellite:

http://tass.ru/kosmos/4362793

"The satellite is a space platform on which several types of payloads can be installed. The payload installed on the platform is equipment for remote sensing of the Earth and equipment to photograph objects in space".

So are there any indications that Russia has been working on a space-based space surveillance system? There is some evidence that a satellite launched on 2 August 1994 (Cosmos-2285, also identified as Obzor) tested equipment for space surveillance. It carried a multispectral camera called KOE-OZ built by NPP OPTEKS, which was described on the company's website as having been designed for "remote sensing of the Earth's surface and atmosphere as well as near space" (as quoted in an article in "Novosti kosmonavtiki" 10/2002).

One publication identified the satellite as 17F118-0, indicating it used the same bus as the 17F118 Nadezhda navigation satellites built by PO Polyot in Omsk.
http://www.dslib.net/texnika/radiometricheskaja-i-radiacionnaja-korrekcija-informacii-poluchaemoj-optiko.html

Cosmos-2285 used the same launch vehicle (Cosmos-3M) and orbital altitude (roughly 1000 km) as Nadezhda, but had a different inclination (74° vs 83° for Nadezhda). It remained operational for five years.
https://en.sovzond.ru/upload/iblock/ec9/2010_04_004.pdf

In late 2001 a clue emerged that Cosmos-2285 might have been the experimental precursor of an operational constellation of satellites. A document appeared on the website of the State Committee for Radio Frequencies about the allocation of radio frequencies for a satellite constellation called "Stroi". This was said to be intended to "provide the Ministry of Defense with information about the space situation". The constellation was to consist of 3 to 9 small Stroi-KS satellites in three orbital planes and in circular orbits (at 650 to 1000 km altitude) with an inclination of 74°. Stroi-KS was said to have been preceded by an experimental system called Stroi-EK (possibly Cosmos-2285).
http://dokipedia.ru/document/5278810

Interestingly, when former OPTEKS director Vladimir Karasev died in 2010, a press release said that "the space-based space surveillance system Stroi-Obzor" had been developed under his leadership.
http://www.netall.ru/gnn/130/573/437561.html

None of the Stroi satellites were ever launched and there are no indications that the project is still alive. If Cosmos-2519 is used for space surveillance, it is probably an entirely different satellite.

One clue that Russia is still interested in such satellites came in a March 2013 interview between Interfax and Viktor Shilin, chief designer of the MAK Vympel corporation, which is closely involved in the development of Russia's ground-based space surveillance systems. Asked how he expected America's space-based space surveillance systems to evolve, he said: "We think that we will also have such space-based optical instruments as well as inspector satellites. Optical imaging satellites [like that] can have a mass of 300 to 400 kg, such plans exist".
http://www.militarynews.ru/story.asp?rid=2&nid=327466

That, of course, doesn't mean such a satellite was actually built in a few years time. I do wonder though (but it's sheer speculation) if there is a link between Cosmos-2519 and the Kanopus-ST satellite (Cosmos-2511), launched on 5 December 2015 (but rendered useless when it failed to separate from the launch vehicle). Kanopus-ST was a 440 kg satellite for remote sensing in the interests of the Ministry of Defence (the exact purpose was never clearly identified). It was launched into an orbit similar to Cosmos-2519 (roughly 700 km, 98.1°) and used the same launch vehicle (Soyuz-2-1v/Volga). It had a bus built by PO Polyot and the company responsible for the payload and the project as a whole was NTTs Kosmonit. The payload consisted of a microwave radiometer and a multispectral camera called KMVD-E.

Could Cosmos-2519 have the same bus with a different or related payload?  Admittedly, I have seen no evidence that PO Polyot (now part of Khrunichev) is still in the satellite building business (their primary task is to organize the serial manufacturе of the Angara rocket). Moreover, the development of Kanopus-ST was very troublesome and ran into many delays.

As for the payload, it is interesting to note that NTTs Kosmonit is not only involved in Earth remote sensing, but also in modeling of the space debris environment.
http://resurs.cpi.space.ru
But claiming that it may therefore also be involved in developing a space surveillance payload is a big stretch of the imagination...
 
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: Alter Sachse on 08/13/2017 08:49 am
other "Obzor"-projects:
http://www.russianspaceweb.com/obzor_o.html
http://www.russianspaceweb.com/obzor_r.html
 
quote Obzor O-article:
"The satellites were expected to operate in a 700-kilometer circular orbit with an inclination 98.2 degrees toward the Equator."
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: B. Hendrickx on 08/13/2017 11:35 am
other "Obzor"-projects:
http://www.russianspaceweb.com/obzor_o.html
http://www.russianspaceweb.com/obzor_r.html
 
quote Obzor O-article:
"The satellites were expected to operate in a 700-kilometer circular orbit with an inclination 98.2 degrees toward the Equator."

These are unrelated to Stroi-Obzor.
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: Liss on 08/23/2017 01:50 pm
Interfax reported today http://www.interfax.ru/russia/576068 that an inspector satellite has separated today from Kosmos-2519 to conduct experiments with imaging the main spacecraft.
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: Phillip Clark on 08/23/2017 02:10 pm
Fascinating, Igor!
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: Nicolas PILLET on 08/23/2017 04:29 pm
The original source is this press release from Ministry of Defense :

http://function.mil.ru/news_page/country/more.htm?id=12139523@egNews
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: Magic on 08/23/2017 06:06 pm
2017-037D?
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: Phillip Clark on 08/23/2017 06:33 pm
2017-037D?

One would assume so.   As of now there are now TLEs of the new object.
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: Liss on 08/23/2017 08:37 pm
Interfax reported today http://www.interfax.ru/russia/576068 that an inspector satellite has separated today from Kosmos-2519 to conduct experiments with imaging the main spacecraft.
A significant amendment: the inspector is said to image another, unnamed Russian spaceraft.
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: Liss on 08/23/2017 09:57 pm
Interesting enough that current difference in height with K2486 (55 km) is compensated with difference in inclination (0.21°).

Title: Re: Kosmos 2519 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: B. Hendrickx on 08/24/2017 07:34 am
This, of course, brings back memories of the mysterious payloads (Kosmos-2491, 2499, 2504) launched piggyback on three Rokot missions in 2013-2015 that were reportedly also on simulated inspection missions and the first two of which were not announced after launch. The last two rendezvoused with the Briz-KM upper stage that placed them into orbit. The subsatellite released yesterday may have the same design.

Yesterday's Ministry of Defense report also explains the seemingly conflicting missions announced for Cosmos-2519 earlier ("remote sensing" and "observing satellites"). The "mother satellite" should then be on a (military) remote sensing mission and the subsatellite on an inspection mission. The question remains then what type of reconnaissance satellite this is and whether it uses an existing bus or a new one.
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: input~2 on 08/24/2017 10:28 am
"Inspector" has now been cataloged as Object D

2017-037D/42919 in 650 x 670 km x 97.92° (epoch Aug 23 22:17:10 UTC)

while Cosmos 2519 (Object A) was in
2017-037A/42798 in 649 x 668 km x 97.92° (epoch Aug 23, 22:16:59 UTC)

Argument of latitude of "Inspector" was 360.2587°
while argument of latitude of Cosmos 2519 was 360.2881°
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: Alter Sachse on 08/24/2017 01:37 pm
http://www.russianspaceweb.com/napryazhenie.html#orbit
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: Phillip Clark on 08/24/2017 02:32 pm
http://www.russianspaceweb.com/napryazhenie.html#orbit

I find Anatoly's piece puzzling in many ways.

First, object 37B was de-orbited on June 26, so how could it manoeuvre on July 26?

Second, I read the Russian announcement that Cosmos 2519 = 37A is the "platform" from which the inspector was deployed.

Thirdly, there is no sign that any object from the Cosmos 2519 launch ever came close to reaching the same orbital altitude as Cosmos 2486, either at the beginning of August or at any other time so how could an object have "approached" Cosmos 2486?
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: input~2 on 08/24/2017 02:55 pm
http://www.russianspaceweb.com/napryazhenie.html#orbit (http://www.russianspaceweb.com/napryazhenie.html#orbit)

I find Anatoly's piece puzzling in many ways.

First, object 37B was de-orbited on June 26, so how could it manoeivre on July 26?

Second, I read the Russian announcement that Cosmos 2519 = 37A is the "platform" from which the inspector was deployed.

Thirdly, there is no sign that any object from the Cosmos 2519 launch ever came close to reaching the same orbital altitude as Cosmos 2486, either at the beginning of August or at any other time so how could an object have "approached" Cosmos 2486?
Yes, according to NORAD data, Volga , cataloged as 2017-037B, reentered on June 27, latest available TLE corresponds to an epoch of June 26. So we wonder about the July 26 maneuver...
I think Anatoly should update his webpage taking into account the confirmed appearance of Object D, 2017-037D 
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: Alter Sachse on 08/24/2017 04:44 pm
The maneuvers (26.07.) may concern object A ?
I think it is possible that the "inspector" Cosmos 2486 will approach.
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: Danderman on 08/24/2017 04:50 pm
I am not suggesting this based on any facts, but don't rule out the maneuvers being conducted by the Volga platform, somehow still being in orbit. Or rather, that possibility should be ruled out.
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: Phillip Clark on 08/24/2017 04:59 pm
The maneuvers (26.07.) may concern object A ?
I think it is possible that the "inspector" Cosmos 2486 will approach.

My comments are based upon what Anatoly Zak's referenced piece actually says and he says that C2519 approached C2486 at the start of this month.   And he specifically says that the July 26+ mannoeuvres were by object B from the launch.
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: Liss on 08/24/2017 06:35 pm
http://www.russianspaceweb.com/napryazhenie.html#orbit
Thirdly, there is no sign that any object from the Cosmos 2519 launch ever came close to reaching the same orbital altitude as Cosmos 2486, either at the beginning of August or at any other time so how could an object have "approached" Cosmos 2486?
I think Anatoly failed to correctly interpret my plot which does show "approach" in the first days of August, but in plane only, not in height yet.
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: B. Hendrickx on 08/27/2017 08:29 am
A post on the NK forum yesterday suggests Cosmos-2519 is a product of NPO Lavochkin. There was apparently some kind of internal message sent to the NPO Lavochkin workforce on "the successful completion of the first stage of flight tests" of Cosmos-2519 (which I assume is the phase before the release of the subsatellite). The poster also claims the satellite was built in barely two years time. I don't know if this person is a Lavochkin insider, but interesting to mention here nevertheless.

We can't tell for sure if Lavochkin built the main satellite or the subsatellite (or both), but let's assume it's the main satellite. We know from the Ministry of Defense announcement made shortly after launch that the satellite uses a bus that can house a variety of payloads. NPO Lavochkin has produced two satellite buses, namely Navigator and Karat. Navigator is the bus used by the Elektro-L geostationary weather satellites and the Radioastron/Spektr-R observatory (as well as future satellites in the Spektr series). Karat has been used by two small scientific satellites (MKA-FKI PN1/Zond-PP and MKA-FKI-PN2/Relek), both of which failed well before the end of their expected lifetimes.

https://www.laspace.ru/company/products/platforms/Navigator   

Navigator : platform mass 850-980 kg, maximum fuel load 570 kg, maximum payload mass 2600 kg
Karat : maximum platform mass 140 kg, maximum payload mass 100 kg.   

Neither would seem to fit the bill. Soyuz-2.1v can deliver a maximum of 1.4 t to Sun-synchronous orbit from Plesetsk (according to Roscosmos data). That would seem to leave too little payload capacity for Cosmos-2519 if it were to use a Navigator bus. Karat is a small platform (both MKA-FKI satellites were launched piggyback) and it seems to have been abandoned following its two problem-plagued missions.

Lavochkin has been working on a new bus called Karat-200, which was selected for a solar observatory last year.  Maximum bus weight is said to be 246 kg. Also seems to be too small. Having said that, if they want to put 300/400 kg  class satellites into SSO from Plesetsk without them hitching a ride with other satellites, they have no other options than Soyuz-2.1v or Rokot. There's nothing smaller around. For instance, the Kanopus-ST satellite launched into the same kind of orbit by a Soyuz-2.1v/Volga in 2015 weighed just 440 kg. And if Kosmos-2519 was indeed built in just two years, you would expect them to have used an existing bus rather than something totally new... 

 
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: input~2 on 08/27/2017 01:12 pm
For the record, here is tentatively a NOTAM for Volga debris impact zone valid until June 24, 07:10 UTC
(to be compared with similar NOTAM for the previous Soyuz 2.1v launch (http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=36648.msg1452663#msg1452663))
Question: why then was object 2017-037B, identified by USSTRATCOM as Volga, tracked until June 26 in a 654 x 669 km orbit?

B2912/17 NOTAMN
Q) NZZO/QRTCA/IV/BO /W /000/999/4500S15329W999
A) NZZO B) 1706231800 C) 1706240710
E) TEMPO DANGER AREA NZD030 (EAST AUCKLAND OCEANIC FIR) IS PRESCRIBED
AS FLW:
ALL THAT AIRSPACE BOUNDED BY A LINE JOINING
S 30 00 00, W 131 00 00
S 60 00 00, W 131 00 00
S 60 00 00, W 175 00 00
S 30 00 00, W 175 00 00
S 30 00 00, W 131 00 00.
ACTIVITY: SPACE DEBRIS RETURN
USER AGENCY: FOREIGN SPACE AGENCY
PRESCRIBED PURSUANT TO CIVIL AVIATION RULE PART 71 UNDER A DELEGATED
AUTHORITY ISSUED BY THE DIRECTOR OF CIVIL AVIATION
F) SFC G) FL999
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: anik on 08/27/2017 01:26 pm
For the record, here is tentatively a NOTAM for Volga debris impact zone valid until June 24, 07:10 UTC
(to be compared with similar NOTAM for the previous Soyuz 2.1v launch (http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=36648.msg1452663#msg1452663))
Question: why then was object 2017-037B, identified by USSTRATCOM as Volga, tracked until June 26 in a 654 x 669 km orbit?

At last this question is asked.
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: Phillip Clark on 08/27/2017 02:20 pm
For the record, here is tentatively a NOTAM for Volga debris impact zone valid until June 24, 07:10 UTC
(to be compared with similar NOTAM for the previous Soyuz 2.1v launch (http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=36648.msg1452663#msg1452663))
Question: why then was object 2017-037B, identified by USSTRATCOM as Volga, tracked until June 26 in a 654 x 669 km orbit?
At last this question is asked.

I know that in the past (and I started to get the TLEs in 1980) we would sometimes get post-decay element sets for objects when USSTRATCOM or its earlier equivalent would issue *predicted* orbital data for an object because the computer system had not registered the decay/re-entry.   Could this have happened with the Volga stage?
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: Alter Sachse on 08/27/2017 03:11 pm
another possibility:Volga stage is burn up
and the tracked object is another part of this launch
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: input~2 on 08/27/2017 07:24 pm
From Spacetrack: ???

 
NORAD CAT IDSATNAMEINTLDESDECAY_EPOCHRCSSOURCEType
42799VOLGA R/B2017-037B27/06/2017 00:00LARGEsatcatHistorical
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: Alter Sachse on 08/27/2017 08:18 pm
Any new orbital data of object "D" ?
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: input~2 on 08/27/2017 08:32 pm
Any new orbital data of object "D" ?
Slight change: initial period of 97.93 min was 97.92 min last night
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: Phillip Clark on 08/27/2017 08:58 pm
Any new orbital data of object "D" ?
Slight change: initial period of 97.93 min was 97.92 min last night

You need to ask "is that change in the orbital period "real" or due to inherent errors of the TLEs?".
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: Liss on 08/27/2017 09:18 pm
You need to ask "is that change in the orbital period "real" or due to inherent errors of the TLEs?".
I'd say it's real:

Title: Re: Kosmos 2519 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: Phillip Clark on 08/28/2017 08:36 am
During the period August 24-27 the orbital period of the subsatellite has had an overall reduction from 97.93 minutes to 97.89 minutes which I am happy is real.

I have also noted that during August 27 the orbital period of C2486 appears to have reduced from 99.07 minutes to 99.04 minutes.   It means that C2519 and/or the subsatellite still have a long way to go before they rendezvous with C2486 - if indeed that is the intention.   Maybe the Russians will be happy with long-distance observations?
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: Alter Sachse on 08/28/2017 09:01 am
During the period August 24-27 the orbital period of the subsatellite has had an overall reduction from 97.93 minutes to 97.89 minutes which I am happy is real.

I have also noted that during August 27 the orbital period of C2486 appears to have reduced from 99.07 minutes to 99.04 minutes.   It means that C2519 and/or the subsatellite still have a long way to go before they rendezvous with C2486 - if indeed that is the intention.   Maybe the Russians will be happy with long-distance observations?
The least distance is 30 km. Too much for good pictures ??
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: Phillip Clark on 08/28/2017 09:33 am
During the period August 24-27 the orbital period of the subsatellite has had an overall reduction from 97.93 minutes to 97.89 minutes which I am happy is real.
I have also noted that during August 27 the orbital period of C2486 appears to have reduced from 99.07 minutes to 99.04 minutes.   It means that C2519 and/or the subsatellite still have a long way to go before they rendezvous with C2486 - if indeed that is the intention.   Maybe the Russians will be happy with long-distance observations?
The least distance is 30 km. Too much for good pictures ??

I agree about the distance but if the technology is aimed at taking images of objects in orbit then being able to photograph distant objects would save on propellant!
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: Alter Sachse on 08/28/2017 11:45 am
During the period August 24-27 the orbital period of the subsatellite has had an overall reduction from 97.93 minutes to 97.89 minutes which I am happy is real.
I have also noted that during August 27 the orbital period of C2486 appears to have reduced from 99.07 minutes to 99.04 minutes.   It means that C2519 and/or the subsatellite still have a long way to go before they rendezvous with C2486 - if indeed that is the intention.   Maybe the Russians will be happy with long-distance observations?
The least distance is 30 km. Too much for good pictures ??

I agree about the distance but if the technology is aimed at taking images of objects in orbit then being able to photograph distant objects would save on propellant!
If the "inspector" is looking for the temporary failure of Cocmos 2486, he must be closer.
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: Phillip Clark on 08/28/2017 11:51 am
What temporary failure of Cosmos 2486?
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: Alter Sachse on 08/28/2017 11:56 am
What temporary failure of Cosmos 2486?
It should have failed from 11/2013 to 6/2014.
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: gwiz on 08/28/2017 01:11 pm
What temporary failure of Cosmos 2486?
Not many details, some sort of computer problem, functionality was restored with new software.
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: Alter Sachse on 08/28/2017 01:33 pm
http://function.mil.ru/news_page/country/more.htm?id=12139523@egNews
If I understand the report correctly, the mother-satellite is to be observed.
 Or does it mean anyone "own satellite"?
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: Phillip Clark on 08/28/2017 02:27 pm
What temporary failure of Cosmos 2486?
Not many details, some sort of computer problem, functionality was restored with new software.

I was thinking that the failure being referred to was much more recent.
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: B. Hendrickx on 08/28/2017 08:35 pm
http://function.mil.ru/news_page/country/more.htm?id=12139523@egNews
If I understand the report correctly, the mother-satellite is to be observed.
 Or does it mean "own satellite"?

The adjective used ("otechestvennyy") is derived from the word "fatherland", "homeland" and is simply used as a synonym for "Russian". So it doesn't refer to the mother satellite. Here's a full translation of the report:

"On 23 June this year a satellite was launched from Plesetsk in the interests of the Russian Ministry of Defense. This satellite is a space platform on which various types of payloads can be installed. Today a small satellite was released from this platform which is intended to inspect the condition of a Russian satellite. A scientific experiment is planned to study the exterior of this satellite with the small satellite."

Note that the word which I have translated as "platform" is commonly used in Russian for a satellite bus, so it shouldn't necessarily be interpreted as a "launch platform".

Here is Spaceflight 101's analysis of recent events in the Cosmos-2519 mission:

http://spaceflight101.com/russian-inspector-satellite-orbital-activity/

Interesting to see in that report that the last two inspector satellites launched on the Rokot booster (Cosmos-2499 and 2504) have shown more activity in 2017, with the latter possibly passing within one km of a piece of Chinese space debris.


Title: Re: Kosmos 2519 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: Stan Black on 08/28/2017 09:30 pm
During the period August 24-27 the orbital period of the subsatellite has had an overall reduction from 97.93 minutes to 97.89 minutes which I am happy is real.

I have also noted that during August 27 the orbital period of C2486 appears to have reduced from 99.07 minutes to 99.04 minutes.   It means that C2519 and/or the subsatellite still have a long way to go before they rendezvous with C2486 - if indeed that is the intention.   Maybe the Russians will be happy with long-distance observations?

There is an article here about long distance observations using Lavochkin satellites:-
http://www.laspace.ru/upload/iblock/fd1/fd1ace1832b2224dc012a18c14e2f6c7.pdf
http://vestnik.laspace.ru/archives/04-2015/
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: B. Hendrickx on 08/28/2017 10:08 pm
During the period August 24-27 the orbital period of the subsatellite has had an overall reduction from 97.93 minutes to 97.89 minutes which I am happy is real.

I have also noted that during August 27 the orbital period of C2486 appears to have reduced from 99.07 minutes to 99.04 minutes.   It means that C2519 and/or the subsatellite still have a long way to go before they rendezvous with C2486 - if indeed that is the intention.   Maybe the Russians will be happy with long-distance observations?

There is an article here about long distance observations using Lavochkin satellites:-
http://www.laspace.ru/upload/iblock/fd1/fd1ace1832b2224dc012a18c14e2f6c7.pdf
http://vestnik.laspace.ru/archives/04-2015/

This article (published in a 2015 edition of the NPO Lavochkin magazine "Vestnik") describes two satellites for observations of the geostationary belt : one (using the Navigator bus) in a highly elliptical orbit for close-up observations and the other using the Karat-200 bus for long-distance observations. As I mentioned in a post yesterday, Cosmos-2519 was likely built by NPO Lavochkin and Karat-200 might be the bus. A drawing published in this article may well show what Cosmos-2519 looks like. It shows the bus + payload. We could assume then that Cosmos-2519 is the bus+payload to observe the geostationary belt and the subsatellite was attached to the top of that payload.

Amazing that the answer to many questions posed here may have been staring us in the face all the time...
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: B. Hendrickx on 08/28/2017 10:52 pm
A correction to my previous post : both satellites are described as being intended for placement into highly elliptical orbits. One (using the Karat-200 bus) would observe satellites from distances between 4000 and 18000 km and the other (using the Navigator bus) from distances between 100 and 400 km.

However, Cosmos-2519 could still be the Karat-200 type satellite doing its observations in Sun-synchronous orbit rather than in a highly elliptical orbit. 
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: Liss on 08/29/2017 06:58 am
Interesting to see in that report that the last two inspector satellites launched on the Rokot booster (Cosmos-2499 and 2504) have shown more activity in 2017, with the latter possibly passing within one km of a piece of Chinese space debris.
I'm quite sure that any close encounter with a piece of debris would be unintentional.
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: Alter Sachse on 09/09/2017 11:58 am
Is there any news about K2519 / Subsatellite?
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: Liss on 09/09/2017 07:15 pm
Is there any news about K2519 / Subsatellite?
Judging from TLEs, the subsatellite stopped her drift at 600 km or so and returned to the vicinity of the mother satellite on September 4, having passed just below Kosmos 2519 early on September 6.
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: Liss on 09/13/2017 04:31 am
The inspector thing has started moving higher, if the latest TLE set is valid.
Upd: The elset was erroneous.
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: Galactic Penguin SST on 09/22/2017 02:08 pm
http://novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/news/34836/ (http://novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/news/34836/) reported that the "inspector satellite" that separated from Kosmos 2519 has been assigned as Kosmos 2521, leaving GLONASS-M #752 launched today as K-2522.
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: Alter Sachse on 09/24/2017 09:44 am
Now the child has a name: Kosmos 2521
23.09.:97.91° 97.91min 652/665 km
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: Alter Sachse on 10/20/2017 09:47 pm
There are news about Kosmos 2521 ?
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: Phillip Clark on 10/26/2017 12:25 pm
New Russian report.

http://www.interfax.com/newsinf.asp?id=786439
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: Alter Sachse on 10/26/2017 03:59 pm
New Russian report.

http://www.interfax.com/newsinf.asp?id=786439
What is the content ?
my laptop can not find it
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: Phillip Clark on 10/26/2017 04:16 pm
New Russian report.
http://www.interfax.com/newsinf.asp?id=786439
What is the content ?
my laptop can not find it

Maybe the story has been taken down - the links to the piece do not seem to be working.   Apologies.   The story was simply saying that "The inspector satellite, coupled with the Kosmos-2519 platform, was launched on June 23. The satellite undocked from the platform, performed an autonomous flight, changed its orbit, conducted an inspection, and returned to base".
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: Alter Sachse on 10/26/2017 04:21 pm
New Russian report.
http://www.interfax.com/newsinf.asp?id=786439
What is the content ?
my laptop can not find it

Maybe the story has been taken down - the links to the piece do not seem to be working.   Apologies.   The story was simply saying that "The inspector satellite, coupled with the Kosmos-2519 platform, was launched on June 23. The satellite undocked from the platform, performed an autonomous flight, changed its orbit, conducted an inspection, and returned to base".
Thank you !
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: Alter Sachse on 10/26/2017 04:28 pm
I found this in NK-Forum:
http://www.militarynews.ru/story.asp?rid=1&nid=465067
Google translation:
Moscow. 26 October. Interfax - Russian space forces conducted a successful test of the satellite-inspector, who can fly to other orbital vehicles, the Izvestia newspaper wrote on Thursday.
       "During the tests to control the maneuvering military satellite, ground and orbital communications were tested, ballistic calculation methods and new software were tested," the newspaper reports referring to the Defense Ministry.
       It is noted that the Space Forces were also able to confirm the automatic separation of the satellite from the platform, the remote control of its flight, the use of on-board equipment, including surveillance equipment, as well as the transfer of received data to the ground and their processing.
       The space platform "Kosmos-2519" with the satellite-inspector was launched on June 23. During the tests, the satellite undocked, began an autonomous flight, changed the orbit, and then returned to it, having made an inspection, the newspaper writes.
       According to the Russian Main Center for the Exploration of the Space Environment, similar projects are being implemented by the United States and China.
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: jcm on 10/26/2017 10:17 pm
Here's the orbital period vs time (host, red; inspector, blue)
The question is whether 'returned to base' just meant returned to prox ops or actual redocking?
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: Phillip Clark on 10/27/2017 12:41 am
The lack of accuracy in the TLEs does not allow us to definitively decide whether the two satellites have docked or if they are just close together.
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: Alter Sachse on 10/27/2017 07:41 am
https://iz.ru/662230/sergei-valchenko-nikolai-surkov-aleksei-ramm/rossiia-poslala-na-orbitu-inspektora

Google translation:

The Russian Space Forces successfully tested a maneuvering military reconnaissance satellite capable of flying up to other orbital vehicles and inspecting them. Such devices will allow to determine the functionality of foreign spy satellites, and also, if necessary, to create space fighter-satellites on their basis.

According to domestic experts, maneuvering satellites-inspectors will become an important element of the Russian orbital grouping, they will play the role of a deterrent in the space military race.

As Izvestia was informed by the Defense Ministry, in the course of tests to control a maneuvering military satellite, ground and orbital communications were tested, ballistic calculation methods and new software were tested. Confirmed the capabilities of the Space Forces to automatically undock the satellite from the platform, remote control of its flight, the use of on-board equipment, including surveillance equipment, as well as the transfer of received data to the ground and their processing.
According to Izvestia, during the tests the maneuvering satellite undocked from the space platform Kosmos-2519, launched on June 23, 2017, and began an autonomous flight. First, he changed the orbit, and then managed to return to the platform and perform its inspection.
According to the Russian Main Space Exploration Center, projects for the creation of spacecraft capable of changing their orbit and approaching other space objects on command from the Earth are also being implemented by the United States and China. So, in July 2013, Western media reported that China experienced three small satellites. Experts suggested that the tests were conducted within the framework of the secret program for the development of an anti-satellite system. One of the three vehicles was even equipped with a manipulator.
Independent military expert Valery Mukhin told Izvestia that the satellites-inspectors are an important component of the orbital forces of any space power.
"In the case of a global conflict, it is extremely important to destroy the enemy's satellite grouping in order to deprive them of communication, navigation and the possibility of reconnaissance, so the idea of ​​creating such fighters appeared," the expert said. - In the USSR, for example, tests were conducted, during which one satellite flew to another and exploded, hitting the target with fragments. After these experiments, there were even attempts to create armored satellites.

According to Valery Mukhin, the main task of the orbital "inspectors" is to establish the purpose of the vehicles placed by the potential enemy in orbit.

- By the appearance of the object, its design, the location of the equipment can make assumptions about its purpose, - explained the expert. - In addition, the satellite-inspector can easily combine the inspection functions with the functions of a fighter: went over, inspected, released a rocket, departed.

However, Mukhin stressed that fighter companions would be needed for Russia only in case of conflict, and there is enough work for inspectors in peacetime.
"Such a device needs the ability to actively maneuver between orbits, this is what the military is currently practicing during the tests," the expert said. "Having such a system will become a serious deterrent for potential opponents." They will know that the Russian Federation can check whether the functionality of their devices corresponds to the claimed device.

The idea to create fighter satellites was born even in times of confrontation between the US and the USSR. For example, in the USSR there was an IP program - "Fighter satellites." Its task was to disable the US missile warning system during the threatened period of spacecraft. Then everything rested on the price of IP devices: they cost more than the object of impact. Now with the advent of technology to produce low-cost compact spacecraft, the situation can radically change.
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: Liss on 10/27/2017 04:36 pm
So the only news is that the Russian MoD acknowledged some details already known from TLEs for weeks.
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: B. Hendrickx on 10/30/2017 08:21 pm
Confusing statement from the Ministry of Defense on the Kosmos-2519 mission today (as quoted by TASS) :

http://tass.ru/armiya-i-opk/4686774

(my quick translation)

"According to [the Ministry of Defense] a satellite-platform was launched from Plesetsk on 23 June 2017 in the interests of the Ministry of Defense to conduct a scientific experiment to study a Russian satellite with the help of a small satellite launched from this platform.

Today, in the next step of the experiment, a satellite inspector was detached from the small satellite. The inspector is capable of diagnosing the technical condition of a/the (?) Russian satellite from the closest possible distance using special equipment.  The obtained information will be sent to Earth for detailed analysis and to decide whether the observed satellite will be restored to working order".

Literally interpreted, this would suggest that the object separated from Kosmos-2519 on 23 August (later called Kosmos-2521) has now itself deployed an object, but I wonder if TASS somehow got the wording wrong. Perhaps Kosmos-2521 returned to the mother satellite and has now been separated for the second time.

It's also not clear what satellite is going to be inspected this time. Since Russian has no articles, the report could be referring to either the same object observed earlier by the "small satellite" or another one. The satellite inspected earlier presumably was the Kosmos-2519 mother satellite itself. Now the target appears to be a satellite that has malfunctioned (or are they talking about a simulated observation of a malfunctioning satellite?). Many unanswered questions... 

Just wondering : is Cosmos-2486/Persona-2 still anywhere in the neighborhood?
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: Phillip Clark on 10/31/2017 05:49 am
A new piece of debris, 2017-037E, has been cataloogued from the launch in the last 24 hours.

The orbital data for the objects still in orbit for this launch are (catnum, epoch, inclination deg, orbital period min, perigee and apogee km and argument of perigee deg):-

42798     2017 Oct 30.895    97.91       97.91      650       667    185
42800     2017 Oct 30.786    98.04       93.57      284       615    339
42919     2017 Oct 30.759    97.91       97.91      651       667    185
42986     2017 Oct 31.089    97.88       96.88      554       664    215


Cosmos 2486 was never really close to Cosmos 2519/2521: their orbital planes were close but neither satellite never got physically close to the Kvarts satellite.
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: Nicolas PILLET on 10/31/2017 10:20 am
According to my informations, Cosmos 2519 is 14Ф150 №8120.

https://www.kosmonavtika.com/lancements/2017/23062017/23062017.html
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: Alter Sachse on 10/31/2017 12:38 pm
According to my informations, Cosmos 2519 is 14Ф150 №8120.

https://www.kosmonavtika.com/lancements/2017/23062017/23062017.html
No. 8120 does not seem to be 14F150 no. 2.
Rather no. 1.
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: Alter Sachse on 12/02/2017 12:20 pm
Is there any current orbital data from 2017-37E?
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: Magic on 12/02/2017 01:13 pm
No doubt object E (42986) is Kosmos 2523
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: Alter Sachse on 12/02/2017 01:38 pm
No doubt object E (42986) is Kosmos 2523
Is there a confirmation in the NK-forum or the Russian press?
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: Phillip Clark on 12/18/2017 12:58 am
After a period of inaction the orbital period of Cosmos 2519 dropped slightly from 97.909 minutes to 97.772 minutes during December 14-16.

Has there been any official conformation from the Russians that Cosmos 2523 is actually object E from this launch? - the object catalogued on October 31 in a 554-664 km orbit?
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: Alter Sachse on 12/18/2017 04:04 am
NK-forum:
23 июня – Космос-2519 (14Ф150 "Напряжение" ), Космос-2521 (спутник инспектор), Космос-2523 (ПО) – Союз-2-1В/Волга – Плесецк 43/4 – 21:04:33

 (ПО) apparently analogous "TBD"

Russian friends can help ?
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: Phillip Clark on 12/18/2017 09:48 am
NK-forum:
23 июня – Космос-2519 (14Ф150 "Напряжение" ), Космос-2521 (спутник инспектор), Космос-2523 (ПО) – Союз-2-1В/Волга – Плесецк 43/4 – 21:04:33
 (ПО) apparently analogous "TBD"
Russian friends can help ?

So it would appear that the people using the NK Forum haven't seen official confirmation either ...........
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: Alter Sachse on 12/18/2017 10:40 am
My last hope: the official information to the UNOOSA
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: Magic on 12/20/2017 06:36 pm
Hate giving web links;
[2017-037E] Cosmos 2523
under UNOOSA Secretariat's remarks:
"The registration submission for this space object is presently being processed by the United Nations Secretariat. Date of launch is date of deployment from Cosmos 2521."
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: Stan Black on 12/22/2017 08:22 am
According to my informations, Cosmos 2519 is 14Ф150 №8120.

https://www.kosmonavtika.com/lancements/2017/23062017/23062017.html
No. 8120 does not seem to be 14F150 no. 2.
Rather no. 1.

Another explanation of the early references to №2, is that №1 was intended to fly on a different rocket?

There does appear to be a 14Ф150 №2:-
Quote
«Проведение и обеспечение сертификационных испытаний ЭКБ ИП предназначенной для комплектования аппаратуры изделия СГК-5 ИНАЯ.402113.081 изделия 14Ф150 Н2», шифр: «СГК-5-КП»
http://www.zakupki.gov.ru/223/purchase/public/purchase/info/common-info.html?regNumber=31705867410
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: Nicolas PILLET on 01/05/2018 04:18 pm
Cosmos 2519 has engine K50-10.5 from OKB Fakel.

http://www.fakel-russia.com/images/content/o_kompanii/letnaya_istoriya/KA_s_oborudovaniem.pdf
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: B. Hendrickx on 01/12/2018 04:28 pm
Cosmos 2519 has engine K50-10.5 from OKB Fakel.

http://www.fakel-russia.com/images/content/o_kompanii/letnaya_istoriya/KA_s_oborudovaniem.pdf

The K50-10.5 thruster is also mentioned in an article in the 3/2015 issue of the NPO Lavochkin magazine "Vestnik" about cooperation between NPO Lavochkin and OKB Fakel.

https://www.laspace.ru/upload/iblock/a81/a81ab7a06d732871d12138a11250f4cd.pdf
(see p. 35-36)

It is said to be 1.5 times lighter than the K50-10.1 thruster used on many Russian satellites. There is a unit consisting of a single K50-10.5 thruster called DB-1 and a unit consisting of three K50-10.5 thrusters called DB-3. Flight models of DB-1 and DB-3 were said to have been delivered at the time for "the first satellites of a new series, namely MKA-FKI (PN3) and EOKA". The same thruster will also be used by Lavochkin's Rezonans satellites.

MKA-FKI/PN-3 (also known as Konus-M) was a proposed astronomical satellite for gamma-ray and X-ray studies that has now apparently been canceled. Rezonans is a satellite for magnetospheric studies, four of which will be launched together in 2019. Testing of the K50-10.5 thrusters for Rezonans is described in detail in this article in the
3/2017 issue of Vestnik magazine.

https://www.laspace.ru/upload/iblock/676/676bc74dae2fe0e9da6e03b6d0a630a1.pdf
(see p. 27-35, with a drawing of the engine unit on p. 29)

EOKA might well be Kosmos-2519. I can't immediately find any other reference to it on the web. "E" usually stands for "experimental" and "KA" for "kosmicheskiy apparat" ("satellite"). Could the "O" stand for "optical"?

Both MKA-FKI/PN-3 and Rezonans are designed on the basis of the Karat-200 bus, so there's a good chance that EOKA uses the Karat-200 platform as well.

More technical information on the K50-10.5 thruster can be found in this English-language brochure of OKB Fakel.

http://www.fakel-russia.com/images/content/products/fakel_tkd_en_print.pdf


Title: Re: Kosmos 2519 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: Alter Sachse on 01/12/2018 04:43 pm
quote:
 "E" usually stands for "experimental" and "KA" for "kosmicheskiy apparat" ("satellite"). Could the "O" stand for "optical"?

or Electro optical ??
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: B. Hendrickx on 01/12/2018 04:51 pm
quote:
 "E" usually stands for "experimental" and "KA" for "kosmicheskiy apparat" ("satellite"). Could the "O" stand for "optical"?

or Electro optical ??

That's usually translated as "optiko-elektronnyy" (оптико-электронный), so in that case you would expect OEKA rather than EOKA.
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519/2521/2523 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: B. Hendrickx on 01/26/2018 03:01 pm
One of the leading designers of Kosmos-2519 may be Nikolai N. Klimenko, a deputy of NPO Lavochkin’s general designer Aleksandr Shirshakov. He joined Lavochkin in 2012 after a 40-year career in the military, where he worked his way up to the rank of lieutenant general in the Space Forces.

Klimenko participated in round-table discussions on the use of small satellites for military purposes during the “Army 2015” and “Army 2016” military expositions near Moscow, where he talked about plans to build military satellites on the basis of the Karat-200 platform.  This was briefly mentioned at the time in articles covering these events in the weekly “Voenno-promyshlennyy kuryer” (“Military Industrial Courier”) (in Russian).

https://vpk-news.ru/sites/default/files/pdf/VPK_28_594.pdf
see p. 8
https://vpk-news.ru/sites/default/files/pdf/VPK_39_654_2.pdf
see p. 8

Klimenko also published an article summarizing his presentation at the Army-2016 forum in the December 2016 edition of the journal “Vozdushno-kosmicheskaya sfera”. He talked not only about satellites, but also about solar-powered unmanned aerial vehicles which could hover above the Earth’s surface for up to  100 days at altitudes of up to 25 km and in his words could be used for high-altitude reconnaissance missions over war zones such as Afghanistan and Syria.

http://www.vesvks.ru/vks/article/malye-kosmicheskie-apparaty-ozhidaniya-i-realnost-16189

One of the articles seems to suggest (although the wording is somewhat open to interpretation) that Lavochkin produced an experimental military satellite using the Karat-200 bus, but that no orders had yet been received for its serial production at the time of writing (in late 2016). This might be a reference to Kosmos-2519, even though it had not yet been launched at the time. The only other military satellite known to be under development at NPO Lavochkin is the Araks-R radar reconnaissance satellite, which uses the heavier Navigator platform. 

There is a picture in Klimenko’s article that shows him giving a presentation during the Army-2016 event with a slide in the background (see below). That seems to show a Karat-200 platform with a telescope as the payload. What could this be?

Lavochkin is working on a Karat-200 based solar observatory called  Arka, but that payload looks totally different (see below). Moreover, one word I can make out on the slide is “monitoring”, which is not suggestive of an astronomical mission. It could refer to monitoring of the space environment. Karat-200 (along with the Navigator bus) is known to have been considered for satellites intended to observe the geostationary belt. Klimenko wrote about those plans in an article for the NPO Lavochkin “Vestnik” magazine in 2015 (see replies 134/135/136 in this thread).

“Monitoring” could also refer to remote sensing of the Earth. Klimenko is quoted as saying in one of the articles that Lavochkin has been working on civilian optical and radar remote sensing satellites using the Karat-200 bus, so the image could show one of those (but the borderline between civilian and military remote sensing is vague and let’s not forget that he was talking at a military event).  He also talked about satellites with membrane optics that could have a resolution of 2-2.5 m from geostationary orbit (like the one Ball Aerospace is now developing for DARPA under the MOIRE program), but the payload seen in the picture looks like a conventional telescope rather than a membrane optical imager. 

So could this picture show a satellite similar to Kosmos-2519? The least one can say is that the Kosmos-2519 “mother satellite” is likely to carry a payload of its own. The Karat-200 platform alone weighs about 250 kg  and the payload capacity of the Soyuz-2.1v/Volga to a Sun-synchronous orbit is 1.4 tons, so there would be plenty of margin for a significant payload on the mother satellite itself apart from the two subsatellites. A Ministry of Defense statement after the launch said the satellite would be used for both Earth remote sensing and photography of objects in space. That could mean that the mother satellite is performing the remote sensing mission (which would be consistent with its near Sun-synchronous orbit) and the two subsatellites are performing the satellite observation missions.       

The least that these articles tell us is that the Karat-200 platform has indeed been considered for military missions.

Title: Re: Kosmos 2519 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: Alter Sachse on 01/28/2018 05:27 pm
Is there any current orbital data from 2017-37E?
I would like to ask this question again.
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519/2521/2523 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: jcm on 01/29/2018 04:38 am
Is there any current orbital data from 2017-37E?
I would like to ask this question again.

Still in 555 x 663 km orbit - no evidence of manuevers since shortly after it appeared.
Here are the 2017-37 objects with E in red

Title: Re: Kosmos 2519/2521/2523 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: apachhi on 02/16/2018 11:15 am
Kosmos 2521 14.02.18 made a maneuver
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519/2521/2523 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: Phillip Clark on 02/16/2018 12:12 pm
Following on from Apachhi's post, here are the pre- and post- manoeuvre orbital data:

2018 Feb 13.888    97.88 deg      97.905 minutes    651 km      666 km   208 deg (AoP)
2018 Feb 14.452    97.92            97.544                 619           664         231
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519/2521/2523 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: Phillip Clark on 02/17/2018 12:51 am
I wonder whether the perigee of Cosmos 2521 will drop further for a rendezvous with Cosmos 2523 which is in a 555-663 km orbit?
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519/2521/2523 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: Alter Sachse on 02/17/2018 08:16 am
I wonder whether the perigee of Cosmos 2521 will drop further for a rendezvous with Cosmos 2523 which is in a 555-663 km orbit?
That was my thought too.
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519/2521/2523 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: Phillip Clark on 02/17/2018 09:44 am
I wonder whether the perigee of Cosmos 2521 will drop further for a rendezvous with Cosmos 2523 which is in a 555-663 km orbit?
That was my thought too.

At present the orbital planes of the two satellites are about 2 degrees apart, so something would need to be done about that for a rendezvous - unless a "fly-by" without lingering was planned.
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519/2521/2523 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: Alter Sachse on 02/17/2018 10:35 am
I wonder whether the perigee of Cosmos 2521 will drop further for a rendezvous with Cosmos 2523 which is in a 555-663 km orbit?
That was my thought too.

At present the orbital planes of the two satellites are about 2 degrees apart, so something would need to be done about that for a rendezvous - unless a "fly-by" without lingering was planned.
His job is to be "inspection" (?)
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519/2521/2523 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: Phillip Clark on 02/17/2018 10:56 am
I wonder whether the perigee of Cosmos 2521 will drop further for a rendezvous with Cosmos 2523 which is in a 555-663 km orbit?
That was my thought too.
At present the orbital planes of the two satellites are about 2 degrees apart, so something would need to be done about that for a rendezvous - unless a "fly-by" without lingering was planned.
His job is to be "inspection" (?)

Yes! :)
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519/2521/2523 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: apachhi on 02/23/2018 09:06 am
February 20 the next maneuver in cosmos 2521
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519/2521/2523 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: Phillip Clark on 02/23/2018 09:20 am
Orbits for the three satellites: pre- and post- manoeuvre orbits for Cosmos 2521.

Satellite             TLE Epoch             Incl          Period    Perigee/Apogee  AoP
Cosmos 2519     2018 Feb 22.569    97.89       97.772     644       660    178

Cosmos 2521     2018 Feb 20.395    97.90       97.536     617       665    211
                        2018 Feb 20.803    97.89       97.778     646       659    182

Cosmos 2523    2018 Feb 22.527    97.87       96.875     554       664    199

So, no rendezvous between Cosmos 2519 and Cosmos 2523 is planned.
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519/2521/2523 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: gwiz on 02/23/2018 03:33 pm
So, no rendezvous between Cosmos 2519 and Cosmos 2523 is planned.
More like Kosmos 2521 approaching Kosmos 2519 again.
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: B. Hendrickx on 02/27/2018 10:42 am
According to my informations, Cosmos 2519 is 14Ф150 №8120.

https://www.kosmonavtika.com/lancements/2017/23062017/23062017.html
No. 8120 does not seem to be 14F150 no. 2.
Rather no. 1.

Another explanation of the early references to №2, is that №1 was intended to fly on a different rocket?

There does appear to be a 14Ф150 №2:-
Quote
«Проведение и обеспечение сертификационных испытаний ЭКБ ИП предназначенной для комплектования аппаратуры изделия СГК-5 ИНАЯ.402113.081 изделия 14Ф150 Н2», шифр: «СГК-5-КП»
http://www.zakupki.gov.ru/223/purchase/public/purchase/info/common-info.html?regNumber=31705867410

Upon closer analysis, this document posted here by Stan Black several weeks ago provides strong evidence that Kosmos-2519 performs some kind of remote sensing mission. It is a contract between two subcontractors involved in 14F150 (believed to be the GRАU designator for Kosmos-2519). It was signed on 8 December 2017 and deals with an SGK-5 control moment gyro that is being manufactured for what appears to be the second satellite in the series (14F150 N2). The SGK-5 devices are manufactured by the Scientific Research Institute of Control Instruments (NII Komandnykh Priborov) in St.-Petersburg, which over the years has specialized in control moment gyros for remote sensing satellites (the most recent ones being Resurs-DK, Resurs-P and Obzor-R). Control moment gyros make it possible to accurately point satellites to targets on Earth without using propellant.

The SGK-5 for "product 14F50" was also the subject of this contract signed between NII Komandnykh Priborov and the Russian Institute of Radio Navigation and Time (AO RIRV) on 1 September 2014.

http://zakupki.gov.ru/223/purchase/public/purchase/notice-info/common-info.html?noticeInfoId=1655557&purchaseMethodType=IS

The two contracts are said to be based on an earlier contract signed between NPO Lavochkin and NII Komandnykh Priborov on 10 January 2013 and another, unspecified contract on 1 December 2011. This would suggest the 14F50 project has been underway for at least six/seven years.

Three articles published by representatives of NII Komandnykh Priborov provide further evidence that the SGK-5 control moment gyros were specifically developed for an unspecified small remote sensing satellite built by NPO Lavochkin. The SGK-5 weighs 4.5 kg and has an angular momentum of 5 Nms. The year of development is given as 2014.

http://www.vniiem.ru/ru/uploads/files/conferences/140523/sbornik_tezisov_2014.pdf
(p. 44-47)

http://www.vniiem.ru/ru/uploads/files/conferences/160519/sbornik_tezisov_2016.pdf
(p. 71-73)

https://dspace.comsep.ru/bitstream/handle/comsep/83/2015_01_08.pdf?sequence=1


Title: Re: Kosmos 2519/2521/2523 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: weedenbc on 02/27/2018 03:46 pm
Wasn't there a press release from the Russians a while ago describing at least one of these satellites for space-to-space remote sensing (ie, SSA or inspections)?
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519/2521/2523 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: B. Hendrickx on 02/27/2018 08:51 pm
Wasn't there a press release from the Russians a while ago describing at least one of these satellites for space-to-space remote sensing (ie, SSA or inspections)?

The two subsatellites released from Cosmos-2519 (Cosmos-2521 and 2523) have been described as being on satellite inspection missions, but the main satellite itself may well be on a remote sensing mission. This would be in line with the objectives of the mission given in a Ministry of Defense press release shortly after the launch:

"The satellite is a space platform on which several types of payloads can be installed. The payload [for this mission] is equipment for remote sensing of the Earth and equipment to photograph objects in space".
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519/2521/2523 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: Phillip Clark on 02/28/2018 09:44 am
Another small orbital tweak by Cosmos 2521:

Feb 26.171    97.89 deg       97.779 min     645 km       660 km    163 deg
Feb 27.472    97.89             97.716            642            657         180

And Cosmos 2519:

Feb 27.461    97.89             97.772            644            660         163
Feb 27.801    97.89             97.772            644            660         162

It looks as if we might be seeing some further close encounters between these two satellites.
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519/2521/2523 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: Phillip Clark on 03/03/2018 10:48 am
While we have had missions described for Cosmos 2519 and Cosmos 2521, there is no obvious explanation for Cosmos 2523.

According to the United Nations registration for this satellite, it separated from Cosmos 2521 on October 30 last year: presumably that information was supplied by the Russians.   Apart from the manoeuvre which dropped perigee by ~100 km immediately after this separation, the satellite has performed no manoeuvres.   I did think that maybe it was the Cosmos 2521 propulsion unit, but of course that idea is wrong since Cosmos 2521 has been manoeuvring recently.

So ........ does anyone have any idea what Cosmos 2523 might be doing?
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519/2521/2523 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: Alter Sachse on 03/03/2018 11:44 am
I thought he was a target  for Cosmos 2521.
But that seems to be wrong.
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519/2521/2523 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: Phillip Clark on 03/03/2018 12:28 pm
I thought he was a target  for Cosmos 2521.
But that seems to be wrong.

Cosmos 2521 has only performed rendezvous manoeuvres with Cosmos 2519.
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519/2521/2523 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: Alter Sachse on 03/03/2018 01:20 pm

I did think that maybe it was the Cosmos 2521 propulsion unit, but of course that idea is wrong since Cosmos 2521 has been manoeuvring recently.

I think, a propulsion unit would certainly not have received a cosmos number.
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519/2521/2523 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: B. Hendrickx on 03/03/2018 04:49 pm
While we have had missions described for Cosmos 2519 and Cosmos 2521, there is no obvious explanation for Cosmos 2523.

According to the United Nations registration for this satellite, it separated from Cosmos 2521 on October 30 last year: presumably that information was supplied by the Russians.   Apart from the manoeuvre which dropped perigee by ~100 km immediately after this separation, the satellite has performed no manoeuvres.   I did think that maybe it was the Cosmos 2521 propulsion unit, but of course that idea is wrong since Cosmos 2521 has been manoeuvring recently.

So ........ does anyone have any idea what Cosmos 2523 might be doing?

Just a reminder that the Russian Ministry of Defense did release an official statement on the separation of the subsatellite on October 30. See reply 153 in this thread.

Quote
Confusing statement from the Ministry of Defense on the Kosmos-2519 mission today (as quoted by TASS) :

http://tass.ru/armiya-i-opk/4686774

(my quick translation)

"According to [the Ministry of Defense] a satellite-platform was launched from Plesetsk on 23 June 2017 in the interests of the Ministry of Defense to conduct a scientific experiment to study a Russian satellite with the help of a small satellite launched from this platform.

«Today, in the next step of the experiment, a satellite inspector was detached from the small satellite. The inspector is capable of diagnosing the technical condition of a/the (?) Russian satellite from the closest possible distance using special equipment.  The obtained information will be sent to Earth for detailed analysis and to decide whether the observed satellite will be restored to working order», the Ministry of Defense said."

Which I suppose should be interpreted as follows:

"satellite-platform" = Kosmos-2519
"small satellite launched from the platform" = Kosmos-2521
"satellite inspector" = Kosmos-2523

So officially both Kosmos-2521 and 2523 are on missions to observe other Russian satellites and Kosmos-2523 more specifically has been tasked with finding out if some malfunctioning Russian satellite can be restored to working order. The only question is what satellite...

I think it was this press release that prompted someone on the NK forum to compare Kosmos-2519 to a "matryoshka", the famous Russian nestlng dolls...
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519/2521/2523 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: Phillip Clark on 03/03/2018 05:04 pm
Thank you for the reminder and info Bart!

Cosmos 2523 hasn't done that much in terms of visiting satellites (other than as part of Cosmos 2521) while Cosmos 2521 has done the various close encounters with Cosmos 2519, so it would seem that Cosmos 2521 is the actual inspector.   I think that Cosmos 2523 might be "something else", whatever that might be.

Unless - radical thought! - Cosmos 2523 is the piece that remained in the near circular orbit and Cosmos 2521 dropped its perigee, and we have the two satellites mixed up?

I wonder if there's another Cosmos ready to pop into existence and shock us all?!!!
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519/2521/2523 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: Alter Sachse on 03/03/2018 05:13 pm
Or Cosmos 2523 is an inspector, but he is "sleeping" or is broken ?
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519/2521/2523 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: Phillip Clark on 03/03/2018 05:18 pm
Or Cosmos 2523 is an inspector, but he is "sleeping" or is broken ?

Possibly.

In my last posting I should have noted that the UN registration identifies Cosmos 2523 as being object E from the launch.
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519/2521/2523 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: B. Hendrickx on 03/13/2018 11:09 am
In the days and weeks following the launch of Kosmos-2519 there was speculation that the satellite might have the name Nivelir ("level" in the meaning "leveling instrument") and be used for geodetic research (I'm talking here only about the "parent satellite", not the subsatellites later released by Kosmos-2519). See for instance:

https://spaceflight101.com/tag/nivelir/
http://www.russianspaceweb.com/napryazhenie.html

The reason for that was that a procurement plan of RKTs Progress (Samara) for 2013 linked the designator 14F150 to something called Nivelir-ZU and a paper published in 2013 identified Nivelir-P as the name of a research program for a new generation of geodetic satellites.  However, some closer analysis shows that Nivelir-ZU and Nivelir-P are almost certainly unrelated and that while Kosmos-2519 may be called Nivelir, it is very unlikely to be on a geodetic mission.

First of all, speculation that Kosmos-2519 is 14F150 was confirmed by what appears to be inside information obtained by Nicolas Pillet (see reply 155 in this thread). We also know from procurement documents that 14F150 is a product of NPO Lavochkin and that the company was likely awarded the contract for the project before 2012.

The 2013 paper deals with plans for a new-generation geodetic satellite system called GEO-IK-3, a successor to the GEO-IK-2 (14F31) satellites of ISS Reshetnyov (the leading authors of the article are representatives of ISS Reshetnyov).

https://www.glonass-iac.ru/aboutIAC/Report%20by%20Kosenko%20Zvonar_3.pdf

The idea was for GEO-IK-3 to become a multitier system consisting of :
-   one satellite (similar to ESA's GOCE, carrying a gradiometer) in a 250-300 km Sun-synchronous orbit and/or two satellites (similar to ESA's GRACE) in 500 km orbits.
-   one or two satellites in a 1000 km Sun-synchronous orbit
-   the Blits-M laser reflector satellite in a 3000 km orbit
-   Glonass, GPS, Galileo navigation satellites

GEO-IK-3 was to become either a dedicated military project, an all-Russian dual-use civilian/military project or a project involving international cooperation.  At the time of writing (2013), preliminary studies were underway at TsNIIMash under a research program ("NIR") called "Razvitiye" (Development). The Ministry of Defense's 4 TsNII research institute proposed another NIR called Nivelir-P to be conducted in 2014-2015. All satellites were to go through the "draft plan" phase (preliminary design phase) in 2016. The satellites in 1000 km orbits were expected to fly first (in early 2019), followed by the GOCE type satellite in late 2019 and the GRACE type satellites in 2020.

ISS Reshetnyov chief Nikolai Testoyedov provided an update on GEO-IK-3 in June 2016, saying the NIR phase would last from 2015 to 2019 and the development (OKR) phase from 2020 to 2025, suggesting no launch will take place before that time.

http://vestnik-glonass.ru/news/tech/idet-razrabotka-novoy-kosmicheskoy-geodezicheskoy-sistemy/

Meanwhile,  the GEO-IK-2 project is not finished yet, with at least one more launch expected.

Putting it all together, there is very good reason to believe that Nivelir-P is unrelated to 14F150/Kosmos-2519 :

- this was a proposed NIR for 2014-2015. The NIR phase precedes the stage where a tender is launched and a prime contractor and subcontractors are selected. Back in 2013 the 14F150 contract had already been awarded to Lavochkin.
- the 2013 paper sums up several companies expected to become involved in GEO-IK-3, the leading one being ISS Reshetnyov. NPO Lavochkin is not mentioned as a potential participant. 
- GEO-IK-3 is still in the early research phase at this time and the GEO-IK-2 program will see at least one other launch. It is hard to believe there is yet another, separate geodetic satellite project assigned to another manufacturer.

What then about Nivelir-ZU? This is mentioned in procurement plans of RKTs Progress (Samara) for 2013 and 2014 (so it was part of an approved satellite project, not some preliminary research program like Nivelir-P). "ZU" may stand for a "memory unit" (zapominayushchee ustroistvo), so Nivelir-ZU can be interpreted as a memory unit to be delivered as part of the Nivelir project. The 2013 document links Nivelir-ZU to 14F150.   

According to the documents, RKTs Progress was to supply Russian-built and foreign-built electronic components for the ZU to its affiliate NPP OPEKS in Zelenograd. This does not necessarily mean that the components were intended for a satellite built by RKTs Progress. For instance, one of the documents says RKTs Progress was to supply similar equipment to NPP OPEKS for 14F155, which is almost certainly NPO Lavochkin's Araks-R radar reconnaissance satellite. In other words, the components go from RKTs Progress to NPP OPEKS and finally to the satellite manufacturer.

There is also evidence for a link between Nivelir and NPO Lavochkin. In  May 2017 the Russian Institute for Radio Navigation and Time sent a congratulatory message to NPO Lavochkin on the occasion of the company's 80th anniversary, saying it was "productively co-operating with Lavochkin in the development of an autonomous navigation system for satellites such as Arktika-M, Rezonans, Nivelir and others".
https://glavportal.com/materials/80-let-npo-imeni-s-lavochkina/

So Nivelir is indeed the name of a Lavochkin satellite and with one of the procurement documents having linked Nivelir to 14F150, that satellite would appear to be Kosmos-2519. However, while the name "Nivelir" would be quite appropriate for a geodetic satellite, there is nothing to suggest that the satellite is indeed intended for geodetic research. Let's also not forget that the Russians like to recycle names for totally unrelated projects (the names Zvezda and Zarya come to mind).

To make matters even more complicated, the name Nivelir also shows up in several documents related to ISS Reshetnyov in 2014-2016.
http://zakupki.gov.ru/223/purchase/public/purchase/info/common-info.html?noticeId=1549683
https://www.e-disclosure.ru/portal/FileLoad.ashx?Fileid=1258675
http://www.npopmrazvitie.ru/images/stories/got-2016.pdf

Here it has the extension Nivelir-MNK-OSZ or Nivelir-MNK-OSZ-PPK-PPA. It can be inferred from the documents that OSZ stands for "unified ground station" and PPK and PPA for "reception and transmission equipment" and that part of the project was to develop "fully rotatable antennas". It is described as being part of ISS Reshetnyov's research and development (NIOKR) programs until 2025, so there may be a link with Nivelir-P (perhaps ground stations for future geodetic satellites under the GEO-IK-3 project). However, it could just as well be totally unrelated.

Finally, another name that has been associated with Kosmos-2519 is Napryazhenie ("Voltage" or "Tension"), but this is not linked to 14F150 in any of the available procurement documentation. The only reason it has been linked to Kosmos-2519 is that appears in two of the same RKTs Progress procurement documents mentioned above, but it is listed as a separate budget item and there's nothing to suggest a link between Nivelir and Napryazheniye.

The two projects also appear together in the annual report of NPP Geofizika-Kosmos for 2013 (the company produces optical sensors for satellite orientation and navigation systems).

http://www.geofizika-cosmos.ru/assets/files/otchyotnost/godovoj-otchet-2013.pdf

However, this doesn't suggest a direct relation between the two either. The report simply talks about the possible use of Geofizika's instruments "on the satellites Spektr-RG, Nivelir-L, Napryazheniye-L, Rezonans and 14F01" (14F01 being a military satellite produced by NPO Mashinostroyeniye). It's not clear what the extension "L" stands for after the names Nivelir and Napryazheniye. At any rate, for now Napryazheniye remains a complete mystery.
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519/2521/2523 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: Phillip Clark on 03/15/2018 09:07 am
Cosmos 2521 appears to be slowly drifting away from Cosmos 2519 (which hasn't manoeuvred for three months).   Latest orbital data are:

Cosmos 2519           Mar 14.883    97.89 deg       97.771 min     643 km      661 km    117 deg

Cosmos 2521           Mar 14.884    97.89             97.780            643           662         118

Cosmos 2523           Mar 14.857    97.86             96.875            553           665         133

My BIS Spaceflight paper about the mission has been delayed for a month and it will now be coming out at the end of next month.   I have already arranged with the editor not to change the article significantly but send in a "Letter to the Editor" to properly detail this year's events.
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519/2521/2523 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: Phillip Clark on 03/19/2018 02:41 pm
Another small orbital tweak by Cosmos 2521: pre and post manoeuvre orbits .......

Mar 16.446    97.89 deg       97.780 min     643 km      662 km    114 deg
Mar 16.786    97.89             97.754            641           662          111
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519/2521/2523 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: Phillip Clark on 03/21/2018 11:06 am
Another day, another small orbital tweak by Cosmos 2521:

Mar 19.435    97.89 deg       97.753 min     640 km       662 km    102 deg
Mar 20.454    97.89             97.772           642             662          107
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519/2521/2523 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: Alter Sachse on 03/21/2018 12:32 pm
Another day, another small orbital tweak by Cosmos 2521:

Mar 19.435    97.89 deg       97.753 min     640 km       662 km    102 deg
Mar 20.454    97.89             97.772           642             662          107
up and down  ;)
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519/2521/2523 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: Phillip Clark on 03/23/2018 03:48 pm
The recent manoeuvres of Cosmos 2521 appeat to have brought it back to being very close to Cosmos 2519 once more.
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519/2521/2523 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: Phillip Clark on 03/27/2018 02:43 pm
Another minor manoeuvre by Cosmos 2521:

Mar 26.432    97.88 deg       97.770 min     643 km       661 km     86 deg
Mar 26.840    97.88             97.786           644             662           78

Cosmos 2519 has not manoeuvred since December 13-14 and Cosmos 2523 has only completed the one perigee-reduction manoeuvre after separating from Cosmos 2519 in late October.

Is anyone aware of any Russian statement about what Cosmos 2523 is supposed to be doing?   They have discussed Cosmos 2519 and Cosmos 2521.   The UN registration for Cosmos 2523 states that it is "Intended for assignments on behalf of the Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation" and that the "Date of launch is date of deployment from Cosmos 2521".
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519/2521/2523 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: B. Hendrickx on 03/27/2018 09:02 pm
Cosmos 2521 appears to be slowly drifting away from Cosmos 2519 (which hasn't manoeuvred for three months).   Latest orbital data are:

Cosmos 2519           Mar 14.883    97.89 deg       97.771 min     643 km      661 km    117 deg

Cosmos 2521           Mar 14.884    97.89             97.780            643           662         118

Cosmos 2523           Mar 14.857    97.86             96.875            553           665         133

My BIS Spaceflight paper about the mission has been delayed for a month and it will now be coming out at the end of next month.   I have already arranged with the editor not to change the article significantly but send in a "Letter to the Editor" to properly detail this year's events.

Interesting to see that the Russian lenta.ru website is relying on this forum to update its readers on the Kosmos-2519 mission. This report repeats the information given in the above post by Phil Clark, also referring to his upcoming Spaceflight article.

https://lenta.ru/news/2018/03/27/cosmos/
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519/2521/2523 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: Phillip Clark on 03/27/2018 10:23 pm
Thank you Bart - getting quoted by the Russians is scarey! :)

That biography he references is very out-of-date, of course.   By about 20 years or so!
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519/2521/2523 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: Alter Sachse on 03/28/2018 06:19 am
Another minor manoeuvre by Cosmos 2523:

Mar 26.432    97.88 deg       97.770 min     643 km       661 km     86 deg
Mar 26.840    97.88             97.786           644             662           78

Cosmos 2519 has not manoeuvred since December 13-14 and Cosmos 2523 has only completed the one perigee-reduction manoeuvre after separating from Cosmos 2519 in late October.

Is anyone aware of any Russian statement about what Cosmos 2523 is supposed to be doing?   They have discussed Cosmos 2519 and Cosmos 2521.   The UN registration for Cosmos 2523 states that it is "Intended for assignments on behalf of the Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation" and that the "Date of launch is date of deployment from Cosmos 2521".
Do you mean in the first line Cosmos 2521?
I think, they are doing these minor adjustments with Cosmos 2521 to drive Phil crazy. ;)
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519/2521/2523 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: Phillip Clark on 03/28/2018 07:13 am
Corrected Cosmos 2523 to Cosmos 2521 - thank you.   When I did that posting i was trying to find something, anything!, about Cosmos 2523, so it was on my mind.

This has been the most fascinating unmanned Russian mission for years! :)   I hope that the new Soyuz-2-1V launch tomorrow will be as much fun. ;)
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519/2521/2523 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: Alter Sachse on 03/28/2018 02:39 pm
Is there an analysis on the size and weight of the satellites?
Cosmos 2519 300...500 kg ?
Cosmos 2521 50 kg ??
and Cosmos 2523 ??
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519/2521/2523 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: Phillip Clark on 03/28/2018 02:53 pm
Is there an analysis on the size and weight of the satellites?
Cosmos 2519 300...500 kg ?
Cosmos 2521 50 kg ??
and Cosmos 2523 ??

Previously on this thread Bart Hendrickx has suggested that the Cosmos 2519 platofrme might be the KARAT-200 which has a mass of around 250 kg: perhaps that mass refers to the basic platform and mission-specific instrumentation is extra, of course.   I have seen no mass estimates or satellite configuration guesses for Cosmos 2521 or Cosmos 2523.
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519/2521/2523 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: russianhalo117 on 03/30/2018 02:18 am
Is there an analysis on the size and weight of the satellites?
Cosmos 2519 300...500 kg ?
Cosmos 2521 50 kg ??
and Cosmos 2523 ??

Previously on this thread Bart Hendrickx has suggested that the Cosmos 2519 platofrme might be the KARAT-200 which has a mass of around 250 kg: perhaps that mass refers to the basic platform and mission-specific instrumentation is extra, of course.   I have seen no mass estimates or satellite configuration guesses for Cosmos 2521 or Cosmos 2523.
the main platform I thought was from RKTs Progress with the NPO responsible for final integration of the payload's assemblies which involved several other providers.
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519/2521/2523 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: B. Hendrickx on 03/31/2018 04:32 pm

the main platform I thought was from RKTs Progress with the NPO responsible for final integration of the payload's assemblies which involved several other providers.

If you go back in this thread, you’ll find plenty of evidence for Kosmos-2519 (14F150) being a product of NPO Lavochkin. RKTs Progress appears to be one of the subcontractors. See for instance reply 195.

Meanwhile, some additional information on 14F150 may contradict the earlier suggestion that it uses the Karat-200 platform. 14F150 shows up in the annual reports for 2015 of 2016 of NPP Kvant, one of two Russian manufacturers of solar panels for satellites. Both reports can be downloaded here:

https://e-disclosure.azipi.ru/organization/1039348/

Both reports (p. 77 and p. 88) say that NPP Kvant would work on solar panels for NPO Lavochkin’s 14F150 in the 2016-2018 timeframe. The problem is that the solar arrays for Rezonans and Strannik, two Karat-200 based scientific satellites, are being manufactured by NPP Kvant’s competitor PAO Saturn.

http://saturn-kuban.ru/produktsiya/solnechnye-batarei/
http://sovet.cosmos.ru/files/2016_0922/prez-p4-2.ppt

One would expect a single subcontractor to build solar panels for the same bus. One possible explanation is that unlike Kosmos-2519 Rezonans and Strannik will have to operate in highly elliptical orbits (1,000x27,400 km and 2,500x170000 km). These pass through the Earth’s radiation belts and place higher demands on the solar cells, which may therefore have to be manufactured by another company.

The 2016 report (p. 84) seems to suggest that the solar arrays of 14F150 have a total surface area of 4.6 m2.

Quote
Выполнялись работы по разработке, изготовлению и поставке БФ для БС КА 14Ф150, общей площадью 4,6 кв.м.

I don’t know if that corresponds to the solar array surface area of Karat-200.  I haven’t seen a description of Karat-200 that is detailed enough to include that information.

Interestingly, the same NPP Kvant annual reports also mention a hitherto unidentified satellite called “Tekhnolog” (“Technologist”) and I’m wondering if there is a link with the subsatellites released from Kosmos-2519.

From the 2015 report (p. 73):

Quote
Изготовлен технологический КПБФ для КА «Технолог» S=6,5 кв. м., проведены НИ опытных образцов, по результатам испытаний КД, ЭД и КТД КПБФ переведены на лит.О. Выполнялись работы по изготовлению и проведению ПСИ 1го летного и 2го летного комплектов КПБФ для КА «Технолог», общей площадью 13 кв. м.

From the 2016 report (p. 84):

Quote
Выполнялись работы по изготовлению и проведению ПСИ 1го летного и 2го летного комплектов КПБФ для КА «Технолог», общей площадью 13 кв.м.

If I interpret this correctly, NPP Kvant manufactured and performed acceptance testing (ПСИ) of “flightworthy” solar arrays for two Tekhnolog satellites in the 2015-2016 timeframe. Each satellite’s array has a surface area of 6.5 m2, giving a total surface area of 13 m2 for the arrays of the two satellites combined.

The only other reference to the Tekhnolog satellites that I’ve been able to find is a protocol signed between NPP Kvant and a transport company called OOO Kargo Ekspress on 17 April 2014 (an actual contract was to be signed later). 

http://zakupki.gov.ru/223/purchase/public/purchase/info/documents.html?regNumber=31401091265

The agreement covers cargo handling for “the last batch of photovoltaic cells for the production of solar panels for the satellite Tekhnolog”.  The cells are described as triple-junction solar cells, which I understand are the most productive solar cells around these days. The Russians used to import these cells, but apparently did master the technology to produce them by themselves in recent years. However, the transport company was supposed to pick up the cargo at a custom warehouse, suggesting it was imported anyway.   

These documents suggest that solar panels for two satellites called “Tekhnolog” were tested in 2015-2016 and may have been ready to fly by 2017. That brings to mind the two subsatellites released from Kosmos-2519. “Tekhnolog” would be an appropriate name for the technology demonstrators that the subsatellites are likely to be. However, it is hard to explain how the solar cell surface area of the subsatellites could be bigger than that of the parent satellite. There is no clue in any of the documents who is the manufacturer of the Tekhnolog satellites. NPP Kvant’s prime customer is ISS Reshetnyov in Krasnoyarsk, but it also produces solar arrays for other satellite manufacturers such as RKK Energiya, VNIIEM, NPO Mashinostroyeniya and NPO Lavochkin. Even if “Tekhnolog” is not related to the inspector satellites, it still remains to be explained.
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519/2521/2523 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: Stan Black on 04/01/2018 08:38 am
«Technolog»
http://www.nkau.gov.ua/pdf/NSAU_report_2009.pdf
http://www.nkau.gov.ua/pdf/NSAU_report_2010.pdf
http://www.nkau.gov.ua/pdf/SSAU_report_2012.pdf
http://www.nkau.gov.ua/pdf/Zvit_DKAU_2011_small_full.pdf

VNIIEM annual report for 2016 has this entry.
Quote
ОКР по направлению космической электромеханики «Нейтрон», «Технолог»;
http://www.vniiem.ru/ru/uploads/files/god_otchet_2016.pdf
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519/2521/2523 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: B. Hendrickx on 04/01/2018 08:36 pm
«Technolog»
http://www.nkau.gov.ua/pdf/NSAU_report_2009.pdf
http://www.nkau.gov.ua/pdf/NSAU_report_2010.pdf
http://www.nkau.gov.ua/pdf/SSAU_report_2012.pdf
http://www.nkau.gov.ua/pdf/Zvit_DKAU_2011_small_full.pdf

VNIIEM annual report for 2016 has this entry.
Quote
ОКР по направлению космической электромеханики «Нейтрон», «Технолог»;
http://www.vniiem.ru/ru/uploads/files/god_otchet_2016.pdf

The first four links tell us that "Tekhnolog" was the name of a space technology development program conducted by the Ukrainian space agency in the period 2009-2012. Described in NKAU's 2012 report as follows:

Quote
The Technologist project allowed elaboration of numerous innovative solutions to improve the production technologies of space purpose electronics, resistant to radiation exposure, with increased resources, minimal weight and size parameters and power consumption. In particular, the design and technological solutions have been determined: production of highly efficient silicon photovoltaic cells using antireflaction conductive coatings for designing small star sensors and components of concentrator solar modules.

This seems to have been a broad technology demonstration program that was not related to a specific satellite project. It was apparently part of a joint Ukrainian-Russian effort funded by the Russian space agency:   
http://srope.ru/6-razvitie-sredstv-upravleniya-kosmicheskimi-apparatami-programma-rossijsko-ukrainskogo.html

This link suggests it was planned for the period 2008-2012:
https://revolution.allbest.ru/law/00588565_0.html

Even if it continued after that, it is most likely to have been suspended after the events of 2014. In other words, this program is most likely not related to the Tekhnolog satellites.

The VNIIEM 2016 annual report describes "Tekhnolog" and "Neitron" as "experimental design projects" (OKR) in the area of "space electromechanical systems" to be conducted in 2016. These could be the names of general R&D programs unrelated to specific satellite projects or could refer to the Tekhnolog and Neitron satellites. The latter interpretation is more likely. The report also says that VNIIEM delivered twelve DM5-50 flywheel engines to its daughter company NIIEM as part of theme "Neitron". These are probably intended for NPO Mashinostroyeniya's Neitron satellites and VNIIEM may have produced similar systems for Tekhnolog. That still leaves the question who is the prime contractor for Tekhnolog.
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519/2521/2523 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: Phillip Clark on 04/02/2018 10:32 am
Cosmos 2521 is still lurking very close to Cosmos 2519.   I am not putting a number to the distance because of the inherent inaccuries of the TLEs.
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519/2521/2523 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: B. Hendrickx on 04/05/2018 09:16 pm
Cosmos 2521 appears to be slowly drifting away from Cosmos 2519 (which hasn't manoeuvred for three months).   Latest orbital data are:

Cosmos 2519           Mar 14.883    97.89 deg       97.771 min     643 km      661 km    117 deg

Cosmos 2521           Mar 14.884    97.89             97.780            643           662         118

Cosmos 2523           Mar 14.857    97.86             96.875            553           665         133

My BIS Spaceflight paper about the mission has been delayed for a month and it will now be coming out at the end of next month.   I have already arranged with the editor not to change the article significantly but send in a "Letter to the Editor" to properly detail this year's events.

Interesting to see that the Russian lenta.ru website is relying on this forum to update its readers on the Kosmos-2519 mission. This report repeats the information given in the above post by Phil Clark, also referring to his upcoming Spaceflight article.

https://lenta.ru/news/2018/03/27/cosmos/

Other Russian media have picked up the lenta.ru story and are giving it their own spin. Phil Clark now embodies the fears of the British people about the maneuvers of Kosmos-2521.

See this story on the website run by the "National News Service" (NSN):

 http://nsn.fm/aviation-and-space/ekspert-rasskazal-pochemu-britancy-ispugalis-dvizheniya-rossiyskogo-voennogo-sputnika.html

(my quick translation)

Quote
[Russian] expert explains why Brits are scared of the maneuvers of a Russian military satellite

The Russian military satellite Kosmos-2521 has begun maneuvers close to another object located in orbit. This has been reported by the British expert Philip Clark. According to him the satellite has been alternately moving away from and getting closer to the object beginning in March 2018, Lenta.ru reports. 

The editor-in-chief of the magazine "Arsenal Otechestva" (Arsenal of the Fatherland), retired colonel Viktor Murakhovskiy told NSN that countries that are on bad terms with Russia may be worried about the satellite's maneuvers even though such orbital changes are normal. Transcript of a soundbite:

"The situation is fairly normal for this type of satellite : they can change their orbits and carry out tasks in the interests of the customer [read : the Ministry of Defense]. So from our standpoint the situation is perfectly normal. From the standpoint of foreign experts from countries that are on bad terms with us the situation is probably not normal. Let them worry further! He [read : Phil Clark] doesn't know the purpose of this satellite and that's why he starts cooking up [a story that he thinks is interesting] in the current military and political situation", Murakhovskiy concluded.




Title: Re: Kosmos 2519/2521/2523 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: Phillip Clark on 04/06/2018 02:37 am
Takes me back to 1988 when Boris Belitsky on Moscow Radio branded me as a doom-monger because I said that if Soyuz-TM 6 did not manage to complete retrofire there was no way to save the crew.   Oh well .........

Of course, it's the Russians who identified Cosmos 2521 as being an inspector satellite, not me.   Still, facts aren't important in the propaganda world.
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519/2521/2523 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: Phillip Clark on 04/07/2018 08:34 am
At the risk of provoking some further adverse comments from "certain" Russian sources ;) ...... all is quiet with Cosmos 2519 and Cosmos 2521: the two are still very close to each other.
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519/2521/2523 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: Alter Sachse on 04/07/2018 12:22 pm
At the risk of provoking some further adverse comments from "certain" Russian sources ;) ...... all is quiet with Cosmos 2519 and Cosmos 2521: the two are still very close to each other.
I am grateful for your information. Go on.
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519/2521/2523 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: Phillip Clark on 04/10/2018 05:23 pm
Assuming the accuracy of the TLEs, during April 6-9 Cosmos 2521 has been increasing its orbital inclination from 97.885 deg to 97.907 deg, while maintaining its orbital altitude (within the accuracy of the TLEs).   It looks to be starting to slowly drift away from Cosmos 2519 - for the time being at least.
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519/2521/2523 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: Phillip Clark on 04/11/2018 06:25 am
Assuming the accuracy of the TLEs, during April 6-9 Cosmos 2521 has been increasing its orbital inclination from 97.885 deg to 97.907 deg, while maintaining its orbital altitude (within the accuracy of the TLEs).   It looks to be starting to slowly drift away from Cosmos 2519 - for the time being at least.

Good thing that I added the caveat about the accuracy of the TLEs!   The latest data have the orbital inclination of Cosmos 2521 as being 97.883 degrees.
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519/2521/2523 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: Magic on 04/12/2018 10:03 pm

My BIS Spaceflight paper about the mission has been delayed for a month and it will now be coming out at the end of next month.   I have already arranged with the editor not to change the article significantly but send in a "Letter to the Editor" to properly detail this year's events.


What month/page number is the BIS Spaceflight mission paper & the "Letter to the Editor" currently in?
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519/2521/2523 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: Phillip Clark on 04/13/2018 01:01 am
My BIS Spaceflight paper about the mission has been delayed for a month and it will now be coming out at the end of next month.   I have already arranged with the editor not to change the article significantly but send in a "Letter to the Editor" to properly detail this year's events.
What month/page number is the BIS Spaceflight mission paper & the "Letter to the Editor" currently in?

It has been delayed.   Two days ago the editor told me that it will be appearing in the issue due at the beginning of May (but dated June!).

My original plan was the update with a "letter to the editor" but instead I am working on a follow-on article which I might send in at the end of May or in June, depending on what the satellites are doing.
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519/2521/2523 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: Liss on 04/14/2018 06:35 pm
Assuming the accuracy of the TLEs, during April 6-9 Cosmos 2521 has been increasing its orbital inclination from 97.885 deg to 97.907 deg, while maintaining its orbital altitude (within the accuracy of the TLEs).   It looks to be starting to slowly drift away from Cosmos 2519 - for the time being at least.
Now it seems this was a fluctuation in TLEs.
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519/2521/2523 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: Phillip Clark on 04/19/2018 06:13 pm
My first article about Cosmos 2519 et al which I called "Cosmos 2519 - A Mysterious Military Satellite" has been renamed "Unidentified Flying Object", and it is in the June 2018 issue of the British Interplanetary Society's Spaceflight magazine, pages 34-39: the issue is published in early May.

I have a second article underway, looking at this year's developments of the three-satellites mission, and I plan to submit that to Spaceflight at the end of June, thus having the two articles covering the first year's activities.   My title for the article is currently "Further Cosmos 2521 Operations with Cosmos 2519", but I assume it will be renamed to be something like "Flying saucers are here".
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519/2521/2523 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: Magic on 04/23/2018 11:28 pm
Many thanks for the update :)
Title: Kosmos 2519/2521/2523 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: Star One on 04/24/2018 06:46 am
My first article about Cosmos 2519 et al which I called "Cosmos 2519 - A Mysterious Military Satellite" has been renamed "Unidentified Flying Object", and it is in the June 2018 issue of the British Interplanetary Society's Spaceflight magazine, pages 34-39: the issue is published in early May.

I have a second article underway, looking at this year's developments of the three-satellites mission, and I plan to submit that to Spaceflight at the end of June, thus having the two articles covering the first year's activities.   My title for the article is currently "Further Cosmos 2521 Operations with Cosmos 2519", but I assume it will be renamed to be something like "Flying saucers are here".

I am slightly surprised at them re-naming it in such a way as long term reader of the magazine.
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519/2521/2523 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: Phillip Clark on 04/24/2018 06:56 am
My first article about Cosmos 2519 et al which I called "Cosmos 2519 - A Mysterious Military Satellite" has been renamed "Unidentified Flying Object", and it is in the June 2018 issue of the British Interplanetary Society's Spaceflight magazine, pages 34-39: the issue is published in early May.
I have a second article underway, looking at this year's developments of the three-satellites mission, and I plan to submit that to Spaceflight at the end of June, thus having the two articles covering the first year's activities.   My title for the article is currently "Further Cosmos 2521 Operations with Cosmos 2519", but I assume it will be renamed to be something like "Flying saucers are here".
I am slightly surprised at them re-naming it in such a way as long term reader of the magazine.

I assume that these days they are going for "snappy", "eye-catching" titles for articles - something that I have never been good at doing.
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519/2521/2523 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: Phillip Clark on 04/25/2018 07:04 am
The production code 14F150 has always been linked to the payload for this launch, but I have an obvious question which might not have an answer at present.

Does 14F150 refer to the stack of the three satellites or does it relate to just one of the three satellites?
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519/2521/2523 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: B. Hendrickx on 04/25/2018 08:53 am
The production code 14F150 has always been linked to the payload for this launch, but I have an obvious question which might not have an answer at present.

Does 14F150 refer to the stack of the three satellites or does it relate to just one of the three satellites?

I don't think anyone knows except for insiders. There do appear to be three "vacant" slots in the 14F... designation system :

14F155 : Araks-R
14F156 : Razdan
14F157 : ??
14F158 : ??
14F159 : ??
14F160 : Glonass-K

None of the missing designators show up in any of the procurement documentation that is available online. I presume that VNIIEM's EMKA (Kosmos-2525) has one of the designators that are unaccounted for, but that still leaves two others to explain. I don't think we've seen one yet for Repei, the SIGINT satellite built by ISS Reshetnyov, so that may be another of the two. However, the new satellites may also have designators that are not in the 14F15.. series. For instance, NPO Mash's Neitron deviates from the designation pattern (it is 14F01).

The inspector satellites launched piggyback with Rodnik and Gonets satellites on three Rokot launches in 2013-2015 seem to have had the designator 14F153. To be more exact, one of the three (Kosmos-2504) was referred to as 14F153 in a TsENKI document. See  Reply 51 in this thread :

https://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=32816.40

If either Cosmos-2521 or 2523 is identical to the Rokot-launched inspector satellites, they should also be 14F153, but then we can't tell for sure that any of them is identical.


Title: Re: Kosmos 2519/2521/2523 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: Bean Kenobi on 04/25/2018 03:18 pm

I don't think anyone knows except for insiders. There do appear to be three "vacant" slots in the 14F... designation system :

14F155 : Araks-R
14F156 : Razdan
14F157 : ??
14F158 : ??
14F159 : ??
14F160 : Glonass-K


Sorry, but where have you found that 14F160 is Glonass-K ?

The only source I found is Russianspaceweb.com.

Many other websites, including Nicolas' one, are giving 14F143 for Glonass-K.

If Glonass-K isn't 14F160, there's no vacant slots...

Thanks.
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519/2521/2523 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: Stan Black on 04/25/2018 03:33 pm

I don't think anyone knows except for insiders. There do appear to be three "vacant" slots in the 14F... designation system :

14F155 : Araks-R
14F156 : Razdan
14F157 : ??
14F158 : ??
14F159 : ??
14F160 : Glonass-K


Sorry, but where have you found that 14F160 is Glonass-K ?

The only source I found is Russianspaceweb.com.

Many other websites, including Nicolas' one, are giving 14F143 for Glonass-K.

If Glonass-K isn't 14F160, there's no vacant slots...

Thanks.

K2

See here:-
http://novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/forum/messages/forum14/topic14568/message1709195/#message1709195
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519/2521/2523 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: Bean Kenobi on 04/25/2018 07:02 pm
Of course, thanks !  :)
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519/2521/2523 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: Phillip Clark on 05/02/2018 08:53 am
Assuming that the data are correct, it appears that Cosmos 2521  might have done a significant manoeuvre:

Apr 30.352    97.880 deg      97.771 min     644 - 660 km   339 deg
Apr 30.857    97.906 deg      91.733 min     350 - 369 km   162 deg

I wonder if it might be preparing to de-orbit itself?   Or maybe it's setting itself up to got back "up" and say "hello" to Cosmos 2523?

I have been thinking about the manoeuvres which we have seen on this three-satellite mission.   I am seriously thinking that both Cosmos 2519 and Cosmos 2523 only manoeuvred once each in 2017, on October 30-31 for Cosmos 2523 and December 14 for Cosmos 2519.   The manoeuvres which we saw for the combined satellite before the Cosmos 2521 separation then would be performed by Cosmos 2521 and not Cosmos 2519.   This might mean that Cosmnos 2519 and Cosmos 2523 both carried one-use solid -propellant motors for their burns.

I am open to rebuttals on this!
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519/2521/2523 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: Alter Sachse on 05/02/2018 10:00 am
Is Cosmos 2521 on a similar plane to Cosmos 2525?
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519/2521/2523 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: Phillip Clark on 05/02/2018 10:03 am
Is Cosmos 2521 on a similar plane to Cosmos 2525?

About 6-7 degrees apart.   I wondered about a visit to Cosmos 2525 as well!
Title: Kosmos 2519/2521/2523 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: Star One on 05/02/2018 10:41 am
If they read it, maybe they will do us the favor.
 

I wouldn’t joke as whenever Mr Clark writes on these things ‘eyes’ always seem to be on it.
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519/2521/2523 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: Phillip Clark on 05/02/2018 11:49 am
If they read it, maybe they will do us the favor.
 
I wouldn’t joke as whenever Mr Clark writes on these things ‘eyes’ always seem to be on it.

Really?
Title: Kosmos 2519/2521/2523 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: Star One on 05/02/2018 04:33 pm
If they read it, maybe they will do us the favor.
 
I wouldn’t joke as whenever Mr Clark writes on these things ‘eyes’ always seem to be on it.

Really?

You’ve commented it on yourself on here?

Last one was something to do with a Chinese site or something?
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519/2521/2523 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: B. Hendrickx on 05/02/2018 09:41 pm
There is more evidence that at least one of the three satellites involved in this mission is called Nivelir-L. See the annual report of the National University of Science and Technology (MISiS) for 2016 (p. 512):

http://misis.ru/files/-/2c871bb6e9b67e7f8cf6243e14e1964e/5-100_НИТУ_МИСиС_Отчет_за_2016_год.pdf

Quote
Разработка методов и алгоритмов тестирования функционально сложных ЭРИ, предназначенных для комплектования бортовой аппаратуры ВИП и СГК-5 изделия "Нивелир-Л" Н1, шифр "ТЗ-1013/1-3СФ-МИСиС"

The university was involved in testing electronic devices intended for the "VIP" and "SGK-5" of "product Nivelir-L". I understand that "VIP" is some sort of power conversion unit (вторичный источник питания). SGK-5 is a control moment gyroscope that is known to have been built specifically for NPO Lavochkin's 14F150 satellite (see Reply 183 in this thread). H1 stands for "Nr. 1", the first satellite in the series (we know from a handful of contracts that Nr. 2 is currently being built).

The work was financed by NIIP, the Scientific Research Institute of Instruments (NII Priborov). This is not to be confused with NIIKP, the Scientific Research Institute of Control Instruments (NII Komandnykh priborov), which manufactured the SGK-5 control moment gyroscopes. So NIIP is a subcontractor to NII KP, which in turn is a subcontractor to NPO Lavochkin for this project. Apparently, NIIP delegated some of its work on Nivelir-L to the MISiS university.

Nivelir-L also shows up in a recent PhD thesis (2017) involving both NIIP and the MISiS university. The thesis is related to the effects of space radiation on electronic equipment.

http://cchgeu.ru/upload/staff/dissovety/d-21203706/Таперо/Диссертация_Таперо.pdf

p. 238 :

Quote
Разработанные в настоящей диссертации методы расчѐтно- экспериментального моделирования радиационных эффектов были внедрены в АО «НИИП» (г. Лыткарино Московской области) в практику радиационных испытаний и использовались при проведении испытаний ЭКБ отечественного и иностранного производства, предназначенной для комплектова- ния бортовой аппаратуры изделий 14В18, 14Ф01, «Нивелир-Л», «Резонанс» и др.-

This says that results from the PhD thesis were used in testing Russian-built and foreign-built electronic equipment used aboard "products 14V18, 14F01, Nivelir-L, Rezonans and others".
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519/2521/2523 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: Phillip Clark on 05/04/2018 07:07 am
Unless Cosmos 2521 has a lot of propellant on board I cannot see it performing a rendezvous with Cosmos 2525.   Before the April 30th manoeuvre the orbital planes of the two satellites were 7 degrees apart and after the manoeuvre the separation was 10 degrees and increasing at about 0.15 deg/day.

With the first of my articles now published in the June Spaceflight and my second well-underway, to be completed at the end of June, I am now scheduled to give a "late addition" presentation on the mission at the British Interplanetary Society's Sino-Russian Technical Forum meeting on June 2nd-3rd (actual date of the presentation is to be confirmed).
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519/2521/2523 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: satwatcher on 05/08/2018 07:21 am
Phillip Clark requested observations of the 2017-037 objects on the SeeSat-L mailing list.

It was found that COSMOS 2519 [42798/17037A] steady in brightness around magnitude 4, as estimated by two observers. COSMOS 2521 [42919/17037D] was faint around magnitude 7 or 8, with no information on variability, while COSMOS 2523 [42986/17037E] was somewhat brighter around magnitude 6 and variable.
http://www.satobs.org/seesat/May-2018/0024.html (http://www.satobs.org/seesat/May-2018/0024.html)
http://www.satobs.org/seesat/May-2018/0025.html (http://www.satobs.org/seesat/May-2018/0025.html)

On top of that, radio monitoring shows that COSMOS 2521 [42919/17037D] is transmitting at 2280MHz. Signals were received in Western Europe only on the Eastern most passes where the satellite was above the horizon, but not when it passed overhead. This suggests the transmitter is only active over Russian territory.

I note that COSMOS 2499 [39765/14028E] and COSMOS 2504 [40555/15020D], and in the past also COSMOS 2491 [39497/13076E], transmit at the same frequency. Recent observations of the first two show that they also only transmit on Eastern passes, when over Russian territory.
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519/2521/2523 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: Phillip Clark on 05/18/2018 12:03 pm
Things seem to be quiet with the three satellites, with Cosmos 2521 performing no further manoeuvres since its dramatic orbit-lowering on April 30.

Current orbital data are:

Cosmos 2519
May 17.608    97.878 deg      97.771 min     645-659 km

Cosmos 2521
May 17.511    97.903 deg      91.704 min     348-368 km

Cosmos 2523
May 17.604    97.854 deg     96.873 min      555-663 km

Since I am giving my BIS presentation on this mission on June 2nd I expect something dramatic to happen the previous day. ;)   Not that I am paranoid or anything .........
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519/2521/2523 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: B. Hendrickx on 05/25/2018 11:03 am
Two sources provide more insight into the organizational background of the Kosmos-2519/2521/2523 mission (14F150/Nivelir-L). One is an article published in 2015 and the other a draft contract on the 14F150 project that appeared online earlier this year.

The 2015 article is dedicated to the 80th anniversary of the Scientific Research Institute of Television (NII Televideniya or NIIT) in St-Petersburg, which has had a virtual monopoly in developing space-based TV systems for Soviet/Russian space projects ever since Luna-3 in 1959.

http://www.kuriermedia.ru/data/objects/2302/files/80_NIIT.pdf
(see p. 3)


In thе article, NIIT’s director Aleksandr Umbitaliyev wrote the following:
 
Quote
Our specialists are conducting work on creating a space-based space surveillance system together with NPO Lavochkin under the leadership of MAK Vympel. One of our recent projects is to develop a small-size star tracker for space systems developed by KB Tochmash.

The space-based surveillance system probably saw its first mission with Kosmos-2519/2521/2523, in which NPO Lavochkin is known to play a leading role. The star tracker being developed for KB Tochmash is probably part of a project called Burevestnik, which may very well be a space-based ASAT system (more on that in a new thread). As of now, there is no evidence that the two projects are directly related.

What the first line tells us is that one of the three satellites likely carries a TV system built by NIIT. A recently published technical book about NIIT’s space-based TV cameras mainly sums up outboard TV cameras for Soyuz/Progress spacecraft. There are only two outboard cameras for which no specific mission is given, one called KT-277 (operating in the visible and near infrared parts of the spectrum) and the other KT-278 (operating in the near ultraviolet). However, there are no clues whatsoever that these have any relation to 14F150.

http://www.niitv.ru/files/materials/Теория_и_практика_космического_телевидения_с_обложками.pdf
(p. 240-241)

The article also tells us that the lead organization for the project is not NPO Lavochkin, but MAK Vympel. This is an organization involved in missile defense, space surveillance  and early warning and is part of the Almaz-Antei concern. In the area of space surveillance, it is in overall charge of the country’s network of ground-based space surveillance telescopes and seems to perform the same role for the space-based space surveillance network. Its role in this seems to be similar to that of the Kometa Corporation in the space-based missile early warning network. While Kometa has overall responsibility for that project, most of the actual hardware (such as the satellite bus and the payload) is built by other companies.

The annual reports of MAK Vympel for 2012, 2013 and 2014 mention work on a space-based surveillance system, but no further details are given. MAK Vympel specialists have written several papers on space-based space surveillance, but few of them are available online and they seem to be rather theoretical without providing much concrete information.  Vyacheslav Fateyev, who headed Vympel from 2005 until 2011, wrote an article in 2014 that describes a network of space surveillance satellites consisting of nine to twelve 200-300 kg optical imaging satellites in Sun-synchronous orbits as well as a pair of signals intelligence satellites in low orbit to pick up signals from satellites all the way to the geostationary belt.

http://www.vko.ru/oruzhie/kak-povysit-effektivnost-pvo-skkp-sprn-i-pro


More on the project’s organizational background can be deduced from a draft contract on 14F150 that appeared on the zakupki.gov.ru website in February this year.

http://zakupki.gov.ru/223/purchase/public/purchase/info/common-info.html?regNumber=31806164727

It is related to 14F150 N°2 (the second mission in the series) and deals with tests of electronic equipment used in the satellite’s control moment gyros (SGK-5). As I explained in Reply#183, the control moment gyros are built by NII KP (Scientific Research Institute of Control Instruments) in St.-Petersburg. The draft contract says that it is based on the following contracts:

- between NPO Lavochkin and NII KP (10 January 2013)
- between NPO Lavochkin and TsNIIKhM (1 December 2011)
- between TsNIIKhM and GNTs Garant (30 September 2011)

My impression is that the latter two contracts are not specifically related to the SGK-5 gyroscopes, but to the 14F150 project in general. Unfortunately, there is still no sign in the available 14F150 documentation of the original contract between the Ministry of Defense and the prime contractor (which, again, would seem to be MAK Vympel rather than NPO Lavochkin). The least that this draft contract tells us is that the 14F150 project goes back all the way to 2011 and possibly earlier.

Anyway, it’s worth speculating what the roles of TsNIIKhM and GNTs Garant in the 14F150 project might be. GNTs Garant is a complete mystery. All that can be found on the Internet is that is based in Moscow, was founded on 5 January 1995 and is headed by a person named Aleksandr Khomitsevich. It is said to be engaged in “scientific research and design work in the field of natural and technical sciences”, which could be just anything. All this suggests it works on highly classified projects.

TsNIIKhM (ЦНИИХМ) stands for Central Scientific Research Institute of Chemistry and Mechanics Named After D.I. Mendeleyev. Its website is here:

http://cniihm.ru

It originated as a design bureau (NII-6) specializing in various types of explosives and gunpowder, but has since branched out into other fields as well. It is currently subordinate to the Federal Service for Technical and Export Control (FSTEK), a defense agency tasked with protecting state secrets and countering cyber espionage. However, not all of the company’s departments are involved in that kind of work. TsNIIKhM has two divisions that the website says are involved in the space program :

- Scientific Research Center of Nanotechnology (NITs Nanotekhnologiy)
http://cniihm.ru/about/napravlenie/nitsnt/

The website doesn’t say much about its space-related activities other than that is engaged in the development of “future space and rocket technology”. It has close ties with a department of the Faculty of Aerophysics and Space Research of the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology (MFTI) (a Moscow-based university popularly known as “Fiztekh”).

- Design Bureau of Applied Mechanics (KBPM) (not to be confused with the former name of comsat builder ISS Reshetnyov in Krasnoyarsk)
http://cniihm.ru/about/napravlenie/kbpm/

The website is rather vague about what it does. It develops and produces space technology and space materials, is involved in building ground control stations and takes part in ground tests of satellites, preparations for launch and processing information received from satellites. No specific projects are mentioned.

There are no clear indications what exactly TsNIIKhM’s role in 14F150 is. What is clear though is that it has done at least some work related to space surveillance and seems to be a manufacturer of small satellites.

Space surveillance work

A handful of articles published by TsNIIKhM are related to space surveillance.

- an article in 2013 about the use of small uncooled infrared detectors (so-called microbolometers) aboard satellites to spot space debris. Reference is made to an American cubesat called COPPER (launched in 2013) which evaluated the suitability of using a microbolometer array for Earth observation and space situational awareness.   

https://elibrary.ru/item.asp?id=21114155
(abstract in Russian)

http://vestnik.kubsu.ru/article/view/551/865
(the complete article)

TsNIIKhM’s nanotechnology lab produced a new type of pixel for microbolometers, but no space-related applications are mentioned in this 2016 article:

http://applphys.orion-ir.ru/appl-16/16-4/PF-16-4-67.pdf
(English abstract at the end of the article)

- an article authored by TsNIIKhM specialists in 2014 gave an overview of American space surveillance projects
https://elibrary.ru/item.asp?id=22651695
(abstract in English)


Work on small satellites

TsNIIKhM is involved in the development of microsatellites and may even be a prime contractor for such satellites.  It is known to have placed orders with other companies for components of small satellites:

- with Tekhnologii GEOSKAN (GEOSCAN Technologies) (part of the Skolkovo Innovation Center) for the delivery of “an electromagnetic device” needed for a “test satellite designed to study how Russian satellites stand up to the effects of space conditions” (which may be a euphemism for something else).
See p. 13-14 of this PowerPoint presentation:
https://en.ppt-online.org/261890

Incidentally, Tekhnologii GEOSKAN  itself is a manufacturer of microsatellites and nanosatellites (although none seem to have flown so far). It has proposed a 100 kg class microsatellite platform and a 4.5 kg nanosat platform, both maneuverable. It has been working on a project called Twinsat-DZ where pairs of microsats and nanosats would fly in tandem to form a space-based interferometer for Earth remote sensing purposes (earlier British co-operation in the project, among others with Surrey Satellite Technologies, seems to have ended).

Interestingly, it has also proposed a network of its nanosatellites to perform optical space surveillance (Trek-SK1) and calibrate ground-based and space-based space surveillance systems (Trek-SK2). See this PowerPoint presentation:
https://en.ppt-online.org/261889

This proposal seems to date back to around 2012. Another project is Avis, a small nanosat class inspector satellite to be deployed from the ISS. Tekhnologii GEOSKAN has an English website, but it hasn’t been updated for a while.
http://geoscan.org

- with IZMIRAN (the Institute of Terrestrial Magnetism, Ionosphere and Radio Wave Propagation) for an “automatic system” required for “the power supply system of a small satellite” (contract signed in 2015).
http://www.izmiran.ru/info/docs/IZMIRAN_37_ref_gr_13b.pdf
(see p. 17)

TsNIIKhM has recently also ordered components for cubesats:

- a Cube-ADCS 3-axis stabilization system (produced by the South African company CubeSpace)
http://zakupki.gov.ru/223/purchase/public/purchase/info/common-info.html?regNumber=31806232980

- a small star tracker called AZDK-1 (produced by the Russian company OOO Azmerit, part of the Skolkovo Innovation Center)
http://zakupki.gov.ru/223/purchase/public/purchase/info/common-info.html?regNumber=31806135457


These two last orders were placed this spring, so they cannot be directly related to the Kosmos-2519/2521/2523 mission. Neither is there any solid evidence that the orders placed with IZMIRAN and Tekhnologii GEOSKAN were linked to this mission. However, all these orders do seem to indicate that TsNIIKhM is a manufacturer of small satellites. That might mean that its role in the Kosmos-2519/2521/2523 mission has been to build one or both of the subsatellites, with the KBPM department being the systems integrator and the nanotechnology center delivering subsystems and/or payloads. TsNIIKhM is also likely the manufacturer of the small satellite(s) being developed under the Burevestnik project.
 

Finally, it is interesting to note that TsNIIKhM has been involved in themes called “Nivelir” with the Vavilov State Optical Institute (GOI) and the MFTI university in Moscow (as just mentioned earlier, one of the university's departments has close ties with TsNIIKhM). This doesn’t necessarily mean that the work was related to 14F150/Nivelir-L, but it’s worth mentioning nevertheless.

The work with GOI was called Nivelir-OAM and was related to the “processing of optical measurements”. It began in 2012 and was scheduled to last about five years. See GOI’s annual report for 2014:

http://disclosure.interfax.ru/portal/FileLoad.ashx?Fileid=1051475
(p. 40, 42)

TsNIIKhM was involved in a something called Nivelir-PO with the MFTI University in 2011-2012:
https://itk-mdl.asutk.ru/upload/iblock/13d/izq%20uqzuei%205l.pdf
(see p. 59)

A research project (NIR) called “Nivelir” is also mentioned in MFTI’s annual report for 2012 (already referred to earlier in this thread):

https://mipt.ru/upload/4fb/2012-arphcump3pi.doc
(see p. 105)

In the latter report “Nivelir” is mentioned along with a NIR called “Napryazheniye” (“Voltage”, “Tension”). This is a name that has also been regularly associated with the 14F150 project (for more on that see Reply #195 in this thread). It has appeared both as a NIR name and as a satellite name (Napryazheniye-L).

Napryazheniye now also turns out to be a NIR project at the Scientific Research Institute of Television which apparently has to do with TV observations of satellites during proximity operations. See this PhD thesis defended in 2017:
http://www.eltech.ru/assets/files/nauka/dissertacii/2017/Morozov/Avtoreferat_Morozov.pdf
(p. 9)

It should also be noted that the themes “Burevestnik”, “Nivelir” and “Napryazheniye” appear right under one another in the annual reports of RNII Elektronstandart (a company that tests electronic components) for 2012, 2013 and 2014. Again, not necessarily indicative of a link, but interesting nevertheless. See for instance the 2012 report:

www.e-disclosure.ru/portal/FileLoad.ashx?Fileid=679596
(p. 19-20)
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519/2521/2523 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: Phillip Clark on 06/28/2018 09:13 am
I had thought that things were too quiet with Cosmos 2519-2521-2523, but now my theory that Cosmos 2519 only performed one orbital manoeuvre (with the early manoeuvres being by the attached Cosmos 2521) is no longer certain.

Yesterday Cosmos 2519 performed two orbital manoeuvres on its own, the first manoeuvres since mid-December last year.   The following are the pre-manoeuvre orbit and the two post-manoeuvre orbits:

Jun 26.895    97.875 deg      97.770 minutes    643-661 km    141 deg
Jun 27.371    97.878            97.672                 642-652         185
Jun 27.777    97.872            97.597                 637-650          232

So, first apogee was lowered and then perigee.

Who told the Russians that I was planning to send in my second article about the mission on Monday? ;)

No sign of Cosmos 2521 or Cosmos 2523 performing any new manoeuvres: yet.   Or the Blok I which is still in orbit: I am not ruling anything out!
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519/2521/2523 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: Phillip Clark on 06/29/2018 07:00 am
There were some further manoeuvres of Cosmos 2519 yesterday.   The latest orbital data are:

Jun 28.862    97.874 deg      97.350 minutes     618-646 km      284 deg

All is still quiet with Cosmos 2521 and Cosmos 2523.
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519/2521/2523 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: Star One on 06/29/2018 09:50 am
There were some further manoeuvres of Cosmos 2519 yesterday.   The latest orbital data are:

Jun 28.862    97.874 deg      97.350 minutes     618-646 km      284 deg

All is still quiet with Cosmos 2521 and Cosmos 2523.

Maybe they’ll go in order so once they’ve finished with the 2519 manoeuvres they’ll move onto 2521 & so on?
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519/2521/2523 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: Alter Sachse on 06/29/2018 10:30 am
An interesting question: has he finished his mission or is he going to another orbit...
Sitting & waiting.
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519/2521/2523 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: Phillip Clark on 07/01/2018 10:38 am
A further orbit-lowering manoeuvre by Cosmos 2519:

Jun 29.809    97.873 deg      97.351 minutes     618-646 km    278 deg
Jun 30.573    97.867            97.041                  593-641         301

No new manoeuvres from Cosmos 2521 or Cosmos 2523.
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519/2521/2523 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: Phillip Clark on 07/02/2018 06:47 am
And still the Cosmos 2519 orbit is being lowered.

Jun 30.889    97.868 deg      97.040 min     593-641 km    300 deg
Jul    1.654    97.860            96.740            567-638         308

The orbital altitude is starting to look a bit like that of Cosmos 2523: of course the AoP is way off:

Jul     1.839    97.851            96.872            553-665         135
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519/2521/2523 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: Phillip Clark on 07/04/2018 07:13 am
Another orbit-lowering manoeuvre by Cosmos 2519:

Jul  2.840    97.863 deg      96.739 minutes     567-638 km    304 deg
Jul  3.533    97.865            96.433                  541-635         309
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519/2521/2523 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: Phillip Clark on 07/05/2018 07:50 am
Another day, another Cosmos 2519 manoeuvre:

Jul  3.847    97.860 deg      96.432 minutes     541-635 km    307 deg
Jul  4.383    97.861            96.277                  526-634         309
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519/2521/2523 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: Phillip Clark on 07/06/2018 06:49 am
Cosmos 2519

Jul  4.383    97.861 deg      96.277 minutes     526-634 km    309 deg
Jul  4.850    97.857            96.124                 513- 632         308
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519/2521/2523 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: Phillip Clark on 07/07/2018 07:49 am
cOSMOS 2519

Jul  5.785    97.858 deg      96.125 minutes     513-632 km    305 deg
Jul  6.586    97.855            95.823                  487-629         307
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519/2521/2523 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: Alter Sachse on 07/07/2018 01:11 pm
cOSMOS 2519

Jul  5.785    97.858 deg      96.125 minutes     513-632 km    305 deg
Jul  6.586    97.855            95.823                  487-629         307
The engine works daily...

Phil, thanks for the daily update !
Günter
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519/2521/2523 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: Phillip Clark on 07/07/2018 01:47 pm
cOSMOS 2519
Jul  5.785    97.858 deg      96.125 minutes     513-632 km    305 deg
Jul  6.586    97.855            95.823                  487-629         307
The engine works daily...
Phil, thanks for the daily update !
Günter

I am assuming that the engine's design means that it cannot do a single larger burn to whatever the planned final orbit is.
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519/2521/2523 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: Alter Sachse on 07/07/2018 02:16 pm
cOSMOS 2519
Jul  5.785    97.858 deg      96.125 minutes     513-632 km    305 deg
Jul  6.586    97.855            95.823                  487-629         307
The engine works daily...
Phil, thanks for the daily update !
Günter

I am assuming that the engine's design means that it cannot do a single larger burn to whatever the planned final orbit is.
That is also my opinion.
Cosmos 2504 has changed its orbit from 1174/1505 km to 627/1502 km in just a few days.
Cosmos 2519 is not suitable for large orbit changes.
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519/2521/2523 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: Phillip Clark on 07/07/2018 04:33 pm
I am starting to wonder if there might be a plan for Cosmos 2519 to gradually get close to Cosmos 2523 ........

Of course, at present the arguments of perigee aren't in the least bit alligned.
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519/2521/2523 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: John-H on 07/07/2018 07:09 pm
Testing a small engine or ion thruster??

John
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519/2521/2523 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: Phillip Clark on 07/08/2018 06:40 am
Cosmos 2519

Jul  6.919    97.861 deg      95.821 minutes     487-629 km    306 deg
Jul  7.783    97.856            95.523                  461-627         307
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519/2521/2523 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: B. Hendrickx on 07/08/2018 12:01 pm
Testing a small engine or ion thruster??

John

As mentioned earlier in this thread (see Reply 167), it is known that Cosmos-2519 has a hydrazine-fueled “thermal catalytic engine”  called K50-10.5 developed by OKB Fakel.  See this list of satellites with OKB Fakel engines on the company’s website:

http://www.fakel-russia.com/images/content/o_kompanii/letnaya_istoriya/KA_s_oborudovaniem.pdf

More specifically, Cosmos-2519 is said to have “an electric rocket engine unit (ERDU) with K50-10.5”. This can be interpreted  in two ways. Either the satellite has an (unnamed) ERDU plus the K50-10.5 or the K50-10.5 itself is considered an ERDU. I think the latter interpretation is probably the correct one: even though the K50-10.5 seems to be a “chemical” monopropellant hydrazine thruster, it may stlll be categorized by the Russians as an ERDU.

See for instance the following Russian classification of electric rocket engines:
http://femto.com.ua/articles/part_2/4720.html

According to this classification, there are three types of electric rocket engines:

- plasma engines (PD)
- electrochemical engines (EKhD)
- ion engines (ID)

The electrochemical engines in turn are subdivided into :

- electrothermal engines (END)
- thermal catalytic engines (TKD)
- hybrid engines (GD)

In electrothermal engines a propellant like ammonia or hydrogen is electrically heated and then expelled through the nozzle at supersonic speeds. In thermal catalytic engines a catalyst is electrically heated to temperatures of up to 500°C, after which it chemically decomposes the propellant (ammonia or hydrazine). In a hybrid engine the propellant is first chemically decomposed and heated only afterwards.

In short, what may be termed a standard chemical thruster in Western classifications, may be considered an electric engine in the Russian classification system. Perhaps people who are more knowledgeable in this field can fill us in on this.

The OKB Fakel website gives the specifications for the K50-10.5 engine (see attachment) and several other thermal catalytic engines (including the K50-10.6 that was flown on the Rokot-launched inspector satellites)
http://www.fakel-russia.com/images/content/products/fakel_tkd_en_print.pdf


The K50-10.5 engine  is also installed on the Luch-5 and Express-AT communications satellites of the ISS Reshetnyov company and probably also on the small EMKA optical reconnaissance satellite of the VNIIEM company launched as Cosmos-2525 last March. According to an article in the 3/2015 issue of the  NPO Lavochkin magazine “Vestnik”, NPO Lavochkin planned to use the engine on scientific satellites called MKA-FKI (PN3) (now canceled), Rezonans and EOKA. EOKA has not been identified before and may be Cosmos-2519, although it is unclear what the acronym stands for.

https://www.laspace.ru/upload/iblock/a81/a81ab7a06d732871d12138a11250f4cd.pdf
(see p. 35-36)

According to this same article,  there is a unit consisting of a single K50-10.5 thruster called DB-1 and a unit consisting of three K50-10.5 thrusters called DB-3.  The 3/2017 issue of “Vestnik” has an article on testing of the K50-10.5 thrusters for Rezonans and two drawings show both DB-1 and DB-3 units installed on a single platform (with the hydrazine tank in the center) (see attachment). Cosmos-2519 may have something similar.

https://www.laspace.ru/upload/iblock/676/676bc74dae2fe0e9da6e03b6d0a630a1.pdf
(see p. 27-35, with a drawing of the engine unit on p. 29)

I should add that the list of satellites with OKB Fakel engines was seemingly drawn up before Cosmos-2521 and 2523 were released. That means we cannot be absolutely sure on which of the three satellites the K50-10.5 thrusters are mounted.  However, the small maneuvers carried out by Cosmos-2519 over the past week do seem to be consistent with it carrying that type of low-thrust  engine.  Note that unlike Cosmos-2519, the other two satellites have carried out significant burns in a single day. Cosmos-2521 lowered both its perigee and apogee by about 300 km in a single day last April and Cosmos-2523 reduced its perigee by about 100 km shortly after separating from Cosmos-2521 last October (and that’s the only burn it has performed so far according to data from Phil Clark).
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519/2521/2523 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: Phillip Clark on 07/10/2018 07:20 am
After a day's break, another perigee-reducing manoeuvre for Cosmos 2519.   Now it looks to be approaching the orbital regime of Cosmos 2521.

Jul  8.779    97.856 deg      95.523 minutes     461-627 km    303 deg
Jul  9.596    97.855             95.227                 436-623         303

It is interesting that starting with the manoeuvre on June 28 which resulted in the 618 km perigee orbit, all of the manoeuvres have been either ~4 m/s or ~8 m/s.
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519/2521/2523 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: Alter Sachse on 07/10/2018 05:14 pm
The whole thing is mysterious.
I thought K2519 is the target and K2521 the inspector.
Now the target is running to the hunter ??
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519/2521/2523 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: russianhalo117 on 07/10/2018 05:37 pm
The whole thing is mysterious.
I thought K2519 is the target and K2521 the inspector.
Now the target is running to the hunter ??
they are independent spacecraft testing multiple hardware for likely future spacecraft.
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519/2521/2523 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: Alter Sachse on 07/10/2018 05:52 pm
Cosmos 2521 has fallen from 350/369 km to 347/362 km due to natural influences.
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519/2521/2523 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: Phillip Clark on 07/11/2018 06:58 am
Another Cosmos 2519 manoeuvre downwards:

Jul  9.596    97.855 deg      95.227 min     436-623 km    303 deg
Jul 10.522   97.856 deg      94.932            410-621         304

Maybe a point will be reached that perigee is kept almost constant and apogee reductions begin?

And as comparisons (these have not manoeuvred since April 2018 and October 2017 respectively:

Cosmos 2521:   Jul 10.783    97.901      91.627     347-362    261

Cosmos 2523:   Jul 10.792    97.850      96.872     553-665    106
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519/2521/2523 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: Phillip Clark on 07/13/2018 07:00 am
After a day's pause, Cosmos 2519 once more lowers its orbit:

Jul 11.753    97.856 deg      94.933 min     410-620 km    300 deg
Jul 12.503    97.859            94.651            387-617         300
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519/2521/2523 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: Phillip Clark on 07/14/2018 06:39 am
Cosmos 2519:

Jul 12.873    97.860 deg      94.653 min     387-617 km      299 deg
Jul 13.464    97.857            94.369            363-613           301

Well that has matched the Cosmos 2519 perigee with the Cosmos 2521 apogee: I wonder if they will start to bring the Cosmos 2519 apogee down and match it to the Cosmos 2521 perigee?   Or maybe match the Cosmos 2521 perigee first and then start to bring down the apogee?   Or. of course, neither of these options!

The orbital planes of the satellites are currently 14 degrees apart (and increasing) so this will need to be correcting - expensive on propellant unless the Russians can reverse the drift between the planes.
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519/2521/2523 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: Phillip Clark on 07/16/2018 06:28 am
The Cosmos 2519 perigee is now below the orbit of Cosmos 2521:

Jul 14.776    97.862 deg      94.372 min      363-613 km    296 deg
Jul 15.496    97.847            94.072             337-610         295
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519/2521/2523 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: Phillip Clark on 07/17/2018 06:51 am
Cosmos 2519 doesn't appear to be matching the Cosmos 2521 orbital altitude:

Jul 15.823    97.855 deg      94.076 min     337-610 km    295 deg
Jul 16.541    97.848            93.778           312-606          295

Maybe it will be lower that C2521 to give the orbital planes a chance to drift close over time?   But apogee needs to come down first.
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519/2521/2523 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: Phillip Clark on 07/19/2018 07:15 am
The ups and downs of Cosmos 2519.   After a pause for a day, it has now manoeuvred up .......

Jul 17.714    97.850 deg      93.777 min     312-606 km    291 deg
Jul 18.562    97.855            94.103            315-635         288

Title: Re: Kosmos 2519/2521/2523 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: Phillip Clark on 07/20/2018 06:44 am
Cosmos 2519 still going up .......

Jul 18.889    97.855 deg      94.104 min     315-635 km    287 deg
Jul 19.544    97.859            94.428           317-664          285

The new apogee is matching that of Cosmos 2523.   But for how long?
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519/2521/2523 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: Phillip Clark on 07/21/2018 07:05 am
Now we have Cosmos 2521 on the move.   No manoeuvre from Cosmos 2519 yesterday but instead Cosmos 2521 converted its perigee to a new apogee:

Jul 19.827    97.899 deg      91.613 min     346-362 km    223 deg
Jul 20.583    97.901            90.929           292- 348           93

Nothing from Cosmos 2523, in case you are wondering: yet, anyway,
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519/2521/2523 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: Phillip Clark on 07/21/2018 04:42 pm
From my rather large Cosmos 2519-2521-2523 spreadsheet, the orbital periods and altitudes of Cosmos 2519 and Cosmos 2521.
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519/2521/2523 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: Phillip Clark on 07/22/2018 10:42 am
No new manoeuvres to report today but I have just noticed that the orbital planes of Cosmos 2519 and 2523 are only three degrees apart and this is decreasing.   And the apogee altitudes are closely matched, although the apogee directions will need to be aligned .........

Oh, and the maximum nodal separation was June 26, a day or two before Cosmos 2519 started its manoeuvres.   Of course, I could well be coincidence-hunting!
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519/2521/2523 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: B. Hendrickx on 07/22/2018 11:12 am
Phil, first of all, thank you for your almost daily updates on this mission.

With Kosmos-2519 and 2521 now both performing maneuvers that are seemingly not designed to get them back in each other's vicinity, I'm wondering if their orbits are being set up to make joint long-distance observations of other objects in space (with Kosmos-2523 possibly serving as one of the targets). I don't know if the current orbital geometry of the satellites would make that possible, but combining images from two space surveillance satellites in slightly different orbits is a technique that has been discussed in Russian literature to accurately determine the orbits of orbiting objects.

For instance, the technique was proposed in a PhD dissertation written by Andrei Treshchalin, who is affiliated with an optical company called NPO Lepton. The dissertation's main theme was the use of space-based optical equipment to determine the orbits of space debris. As part of his PhD research, Treshchalin used a camera aboard NPO Lavochkin's Zond-PP (MKA-FKI (PN1)) remote sensing satellite (launched in July 2012) to observe objects in space.  The camera (called FGMB) was built by NPO Lepton, but was not the satellite's main payload. In the final chapter of his PhD, Treshchalin discusses the possibility of performing joint observations of orbiting objects from two observation satellites in slightly different orbits. Using a technique called epipolar geometry, this would make it possible to increase the accuracy of orbital measurements twofold. 

The PhD thesis is here:

http://ipg.geospace.ru/ref/DS/00000003/disser.pdf


I should add that there is no evidence that NPO Lepton is directly involved in the Kosmos-2519/2521/2523 mission.  It is interesting to note though that Treshchalin's PhD was reviewed by specialists of the TsNIIKhM institute, which is known to be involved in this mission (see Reply 241).

http://ipg.geospace.ru/ref/DS/00000003/ЦНИИХМ.pdf

Earlier this decade NPO Lepton also worked on a star tracker called ZKL-1312 for a constellation of small space surveillance satellites (Trek SK-1) proposed by a company known as Tekhnologii Geoskan. However, that project never materialized.

https://en.ppt-online.org/261889
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519/2521/2523 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: Alter Sachse on 07/22/2018 11:50 am
That's an interesting theory.
But are the 3 objects (C 2519/2521/2523) not far from each other?
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519/2521/2523 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: Phillip Clark on 07/22/2018 01:17 pm
Thank you for your comments Bart!

Do you remember something that Sven Grahn said at the BIS meeting in June? - that the different satellites in the Cosmos 2519 "stack" might be carrying different sets of sensors for tracking/observing each other, and part of the mission objectives would be seeing how these different sensors worked in flight.

Certainly the manoeuvres which Cosmos 2519 has completed in the last month must rule out the "Earth observation" role for the satellite as a serious mission objective!   Although of course, imaging other objects in space was also mentioned as an objective (this was when the three satellites of the stack were still attached to each other).

I could imagine both Cosmos 2519 and Cosmos 2521 being "active" inspector satellites, possibly with Cosmos 2523 being a non-manoeuvring (apart from the single perigee-reduction manoeuvre after deployment from Cosmos 2521) target.   Of course, this would not rule out Cosmos 2523 also carrying its own sensors to track/observe either/both of the other two satellites at varying distances.   The orbit of Cosmos 2523 had apogee above both Cosmos 2519 and 2521 and perigee below both satellites until April this year.   So maybe it was being tracked both against a stellar background and against the Earth - although I would imagine that for a small satellite the latter would be difficult to do.

There are plenty of "known unknowns" and "unknown unknowns" with this fascinating mission.   I just hope that they pause in about ten days so I can draw a line across the second Spaceflight article and get it submitted!   I think that David Baker might have a heart attack when he sees the list of manoeuvres ..........
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519/2521/2523 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: Phillip Clark on 07/28/2018 07:31 am
All has been quiet with these satellites for nearly a week, but of course it is far too soon to suggest that the manoeuvres are over.

This week what seems to be the annual "data transmission problem" reappeared with Space-Track, which means that they are issuing only the latest set of orbital data each day, not every element set generated that day, and even then the reduced data are being issued a day later than normal.   No-one ever explains what the problem is with transmitting the data, but last year it lasted for around three months before the problem was sorted.
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519/2521/2523 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: Star One on 07/28/2018 08:02 am
All has been quiet with these satellites for nearly a week, but of course it is far too soon to suggest that the manoeuvres are over.

This week what seems to be the annual "data transmission problem" reappeared with Space-Track, which means that they are issuing only the latest set of orbital data each day, not every element set generated that day, and even then the reduced data are being issued a day later than normal.   No-one ever explains what the problem is with transmitting the data, but last year it lasted for around three months before the problem was sorted.

Been catching up on my issues of Spaceflight so have now read your article on this topic and it was much appreciated and informative. That’s the most recent issue I’ve read so have you written a follow up letter as you indicated you were going to?
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519/2521/2523 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: Phillip Clark on 07/28/2018 08:50 am
Been catching up on my issues of Spaceflight so have now read your article on this topic and it was much appreciated and informative. That’s the most recent issue I’ve read so have you written a follow up letter as you indicated you were going to?

Thank you for your comments.

My "Letter to the editor" quickly grew into a second article which I planned to send in at the beginning of this month.   Then Cosmos 2519 started to manoeuvre at the end of June!

So, unless further manoeuvres begin, my plan is to draw a line across events on July 31st and send in the article in about a week's time.   I just hope that David Baker, the editor, does not have a heart attack when he sees the length and the table with all of the manoeuvres listed!
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519/2521/2523 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: Star One on 07/28/2018 01:58 pm
Been catching up on my issues of Spaceflight so have now read your article on this topic and it was much appreciated and informative. That’s the most recent issue I’ve read so have you written a follow up letter as you indicated you were going to?

Thank you for your comments.

My "Letter to the editor" quickly grew into a second article which I planned to send in at the beginning of this month.   Then Cosmos 2519 started to manoeuvre at the end of June!

So, unless further manoeuvres begin, my plan is to draw a line across events on July 31st and send in the article in about a week's time.   I just hope that David Baker, the editor, does not have a heart attack when he sees the length and the table with all of the manoeuvres listed!

Do you think we can expect more satellites like 2519, is it just the first in a series or is it an experimental one off?
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519/2521/2523 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: Phillip Clark on 07/28/2018 02:16 pm
If you have a look earlier in this thread you will see that Bart Hendrickx has found contracts relating to a second 14F150 mission, so we can expect at least one more flight in the series.   Since early on the Russians said that the 14F150 spacecraft could carry different instrumentation, we should not expect a second mission to duplicate what Cosmos 2519-2521-2523 have done.
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519/2521/2523 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: B. Hendrickx on 07/29/2018 11:24 pm
It looks like at least one of the optical systems for the Cosmos-2519/2521/2523 mission was built by NPO Lepton, a company based in Zelenograd near Moscow. Last May the Space Council of the Russian Academy of Sciences held a meeting on space debris and during one of the presentations reference was made to future space-based surveillance systems for monitoring debris in high Earth orbits. Such systems, it was said, could use the same type of hardware built for such purposes by NPO Lavochkin and NPO Lepton.

http://sovet.cosmos.ru/sites/default/files/04-2.pptx

(see slide 19)

Unfortunately, NPO Lepton is a rather secretive company, making the search for further information very difficult. It doesn’t have a website and no procurement documents produced by this company are available on the zakupki.gov.ru website.

The company is known to have built Earth remote sensing cameras for small satellites such as Zond-PP, Baumanets-2 and Tabletsat-Avrora. There is some background on the company in this 2015 article based on an interview with its director Oleg Kazantsev:
https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/snova-na-orbite.pdf

NPO Lepton’s main products are star trackers, hyperspectral cameras and space-based remote sensing telescopes (one of which is said to have a diameter of more than 300 mm). The article mentions a star tracker for an NPO Lavochkin satellite (but that could, of course, be any satellite built by NPO Lavochkin). 

One paper published by a specialist of NPO Lepton in 2014 dealt with a camera that can be used for both Earth remote sensing and space observations (more particularly, “observations of stars and space debris”) (author : Gleb A. Shcherbina, 6/2014 issue of “Zhurnal Radioelektroniki”).

Here is the English abstract :

Quote
In this paper we study the possibility of creating a multifunctional optoelectronic system capable of performing both Earth surface observation and space objects survey. It is shown that an optoelectronic camera using an interline CCD matrix can act as such system. A description of the interline CCD matrix operating procedure in time delay and integration (TDI) mode is given. Measurement result data is provided for main energy and modulation transfer characteristics of the implementation of TDI mode interline CCD.

The complete article (in Russian) is here:
http://jre.cplire.ru/mac/jun14/9/text.html

Another article written by the same author a year later (Zhurnal Radiolelektroniki, 4/2015) discussed the effects of space radiation on such a camera :

Quote
In this paper the defects in interline CCD matrix were studied, which appear as a result of its irradiation with high-energy protons. Defects were studied in different operation modes: in frames mode and in time delay and integration (TDI) mode. By using a special organization of TDI mode we were able to localize defects in vertical register with a precision of one pixel. The dependence of the defects behavior on different system parameters was also studied, such as: temperature, exposure time in frame mode, exposure time of every step of integration in TDI mode, charge storage time in vertical register and number of integration steps in TDI mode. Also a method of removal of the influence of these defects directly during flight tests was developed and tested.

The Russian article is here:
http://jre.cplire.ru/alt/apr15/12/text.html

After the launch of the mission in June last year, the Ministry of Defense said its purpose was both Earth remote sensing and space surveillance, so this is a camera that would be able to fulfill both those objectives. However, there is no evidence that the proposed camera was actually built.

As I mentioned in Reply 273, NPO Lepton also had a small camera on the Zond-PP satellite that was used for space observations and proposed a star tracker for a network of space surveillance satellites called Trek-SK1.

As is known from another source, another payload for this mission appears to be a TV camera built by NIIT in St-Petersburg (see Reply 241). One could speculate that the Lepton camera is used for long-distance observations of objects in orbit (and possibly for remote sensing as well) and that the NIIT camera was used for close-up observations when Cosmos-2519 and 2521 were flying in tandem.
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519/2521/2523 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: B. Hendrickx on 08/01/2018 01:47 pm
Here’s some more speculation on the possible nature of Cosmos-2523. After it separated from Cosmos-2521 last October, the Russian Ministry of Defense issued this statement:

Quote
Today, in the next step of the experiment, a satellite inspector was detached from the small satellite (Cosmos-2521).   The inspector is capable of diagnosing the technical condition of a/the Russian satellite from the closest possible distance using special equipment.   The obtained information will be sent to Earth for detailed analysis and to decide whether the observed satellite will be restored to working order.

However, almost immediately after separating from Cosmos-2521, Cosmos-2523 performed a maneuver that lowered its perigee by about 100 km and it never came in the immediate vicinity of Cosmos-2521 again (or any other satellite for that matter). Its orbit has slowly decayed ever since. Therefore, it may be on another mission than the one that was officially announced.

I have mentioned the possibility that Cosmos-2523 may have acted as a target for long-distance stereo observations from C-2519 and C-2521 (see Reply 273), but a closer study of the orbital geometry of the three satellites would be needed to see if that has ever been possible. Another or an additional function of the satellite may be to calibrate radars of the Russian ground-based early warning and space surveillance system. The Russians launched numerous such radar calibration satellites in the Soviet days (when they were built by KB Yuzhnoe in Ukraine) and clearly have not lost interest in them.  They were  identified as an important element of the space-based assets of the country’s Air and Space Defense Forces in a 2014 article by Vyacheslav Fateyev, the former director of the MAK Vympel company (which is believed to have played a leading role in space-based space surveillance systems). Unfortunately, the magazine in which the article was published (“Vozdushno-kosmicheskaya oborona”) has gone offline.
 
The latest Russian radar calibration satellites were small spheres that were carried on the first and second launch of the Soyuz-2-1v in December 2013 and December 2015. The first launch (with the Aist remote sensing satellite as the main payload) carried two spheres called SKRL-756, which were ejected from a container attached to the Volga upper stage.  The second launch (with Kanopus-ST as the main payload) carried a single calibration satellite called KYuA-1, also ejected from a container attached to Volga. There was a contract signed in 2014 for a KYuA-2 satellite (more particularly for “adaptations to the satellite” and “manufacture and delivery of the launch container”):

http://zakupki.gov.ru/223/purchase/public/purchase/info/common-info.html?regNumber=31401464976

 It was probably supposed to have been launched together with KYuA-1, but for some reason did not fly on that mission. However, it can be ruled out as a candidate for Cosmos-2523 because the small spherical calibration satellites were entirely passive, whereas Cosmos-2523 clearly has an engine system.

One company that has studied maneuverable radar calibration satellites is the Kometa Corporation. While Kometa is best known for its role as lead organization for missile early warning satellites, Kometa specialists have also produced numerous papers about space-based space surveillance and the company may have been placed in charge  of the nation’s space-based space surveillance systems after becoming part of the Almaz-Antei concern in 2015 (possibly taking over that role from MAK Vympel). Some comments from Kometa officials in recent years suggest that the company’s space-related work extends beyond early warning. Apart from space-based space surveillance and radar calibration, that may also include orbital ASAT systems (Kometa was also in charge of the Soviet-era “IS” co-orbital ASAT project).

Over the last years specialists of Kometa have filed several patents for radar calibration satellites (one person involved in all of those being a certain Aleksandr P. Poluyan).

http://www.findpatent.ru/patent/247/2477495.html
http://www.freepatent.ru/patents/2519820
http://www.findpatent.ru/patent/253/2535661.html
http://www.findpatent.ru/patent/254/2544908.html
http://www.findpatent.ru/patent/257/2570126.html
http://www.findpatent.ru/patent/259/2594667.html
http://www.findpatent.ru/patent/259/2596194.html
http://www.findpatent.ru/patent/264/2640167.html

Some of the more recent ones show small satellites with V-shaped radar reflectors. Unlike spherical reflectors, these can be used to calibrate radars generating what are called “circular polarization signals”. Below are drawings from two of those patents (published in 2015 and 2017). Both of the satellites are said to be designed to have an on-board engine system and the latter also has a camera for optical or infrared remote sensing (with observation of space objects being mentioned as another possible objective).

While radar calibration looks like a plausible task for a seemingly “passive” satellite like Cosmos-2523, I should caution that there is no evidence that any of these patents are related to the production of actual hardware. All one can say for sure is that Kometa has studied maneuverable radar calibration satellites. The possibility of a link with Cosmos-2523 is sheer speculation. One obvious question is why Cosmos-2523 performed just the single burn. One would expect an engine system to be used to tweak the orbit regularly, which clearly has not happened.
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519/2521/2523 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: B. Hendrickx on 08/02/2018 08:07 am
Jonathan McDowell's update on the mission:
https://www.planet4589.org/space/jsr/jsr.html


Quote
Kosmos-2519/2521/2523
---------------------
The Russian inspector satellite experiment launched in 2017 continues.
From Jun 27 to Jul 19 the host satellite Kosmos-2519 made a series of
burns which changed its orbit from 644 x 659 km to 318 x 664 km.
Kosmos-2521 appears to have made a single burn on Jul 20 to go from 346
x 362 km to 292 x 348 km. Kosmos-2523 remains in the 553 x 665 km orbit
into which it was ejected last October.

Picked up by RIA Novosti yesterday under the title "Expert : Russian military satellite inspectors again change orbits" (in Russian):

https://ria.ru/space/20180801/1525710145.html

And so Russian news outlets continue to rely on Western sources to update their readers on this mission. One of the added comments this time is : "America and China have their own satellite inspectors. The most famous of these is the American spaceplane X-37".

The X-37B has always been a matter of major concern to the Russians and the first flight of the X-37B in 2010 may well have been a major factor in the Russian decision to press ahead with the development a satellite inspection system. However, while the X-37B theoretically could have a satellite inspection capability, I doubt if is there any evidence that it has ever actually been used in that capacity.
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519/2521/2523 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: Magic on 08/09/2018 11:10 pm
My first article about Cosmos 2519 et al which I called "Cosmos 2519 - A Mysterious Military Satellite" has been renamed "Unidentified Flying Object", and it is in the June 2018 issue of the British Interplanetary Society's Spaceflight magazine, pages 34-39: the issue is published in early May.

I have a second article underway, looking at this year's developments of the three-satellites mission, and I plan to submit that to Spaceflight at the end of June, thus having the two articles covering the first year's activities.   My title for the article is currently "Further Cosmos 2521 Operations with Cosmos 2519", but I assume it will be renamed to be something like "Flying saucers are here".

Just noticed on reading the BIS Russian/Sino Technical Forum agenda your 30min afternoon talk on 2 June was called: "Cosmos 2519 - The Matryoshka Satellite" is that the name of the paper to be published? 
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519/2521/2523 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: Phillip Clark on 08/10/2018 12:53 am
Just noticed on reading the BIS Russian/Sino Technical Forum agenda your 30min afternoon talk on 2 June was called: "Cosmos 2519 - The Matryoshka Satellite" is that the name of the paper to be published?

Now that both Cosmos 2519 and 2521 appear to have stopped manoeuvring (for the time being!) I hope to finalise the paper today and send it off by the middle of next week.   The working title is "Cosmos 2519 et al: Further Operations, January-July 2018", but who knows what title it will be given by Spaceflight for publication?!
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519/2521/2523 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: Star One on 08/10/2018 05:59 am
Just noticed on reading the BIS Russian/Sino Technical Forum agenda your 30min afternoon talk on 2 June was called: "Cosmos 2519 - The Matryoshka Satellite" is that the name of the paper to be published?

Now that both Cosmos 2519 and 2521 appear to have stopped manoeuvring (for the time being!) I hope to finalise the paper today and send it off by the middle of next week.   The working title is "Cosmos 2519 et al: Further Operations, January-July 2018", but who knows what title it will be given by Spaceflight for publication?!

You do know as soon as you send it in one or both will start manoeuvring again.
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519/2521/2523 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: Phillip Clark on 08/10/2018 06:13 am
You do know as soon as you send it in one or both will start manoeuvring again.

Which is why I am hoping that my sight lasts long enough to do a third paper in maybe a year's time.
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519/2521/2523 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: Star One on 08/10/2018 12:21 pm
You do know as soon as you send it in one or both will start manoeuvring again.

Which is why I am hoping that my sight lasts long enough to do a third paper in maybe a year's time.

Sorry to hear that.
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519/2521/2523 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: Phillip Clark on 08/10/2018 02:25 pm
Sorry to hear that.

Thank you.   The eye strain which I experienced just over a month ago while trying to set up Office 2016 before I got the colour scheme sorted out clearly did a lot of damage.   I had lost one eye in 2009 and the sight in my other one was already bad.
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519/2521/2523 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: Magic on 08/10/2018 05:01 pm
Just noticed on reading the BIS Russian/Sino Technical Forum agenda your 30min afternoon talk on 2 June was called: "Cosmos 2519 - The Matryoshka Satellite" is that the name of the paper to be published?

Now that both Cosmos 2519 and 2521 appear to have stopped manoeuvring (for the time being!) I hope to finalise the paper today and send it off by the middle of next week.   The working title is "Cosmos 2519 et al: Further Operations, January-July 2018", but who knows what title it will be given by Spaceflight for publication?!
Not to go too far off topic, but your right, your Soyuz spacecraft recoveries talk was entitled “Happy Landings” in the July issue. It’s sad to see them use such a tabloid style, rather then being a good reference of record.
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519/2521/2523 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: Phillip Clark on 08/10/2018 05:32 pm
Not to go too far off topic, but your right, your Soyuz spacecraft recoveries talk was entitled “Happy Landings” in the July issue. It’s sad to see them use such a tabloid style, rather then being a good reference of record.

As noted earlier in this thread, the first Cosmos 2519 paper was originally called "Cosmos 2519 - a mysterious Russian mission" and it became "Unidentified flying object" when published.   The Soyuz paper was originally "Recoveries of Soyuz spacecraft" and that - as you say - became "Happy landings".   I guess that now that the BIS are once more pushing Spaceflight as a commercial publication, available from high street magazine stands, articles need to have attention-grabbing, snappy titles -  which I know I am not good at!
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519/2521/2523 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: Alter Sachse on 08/11/2018 11:21 am
Now we have Cosmos 2521 on the move.   No manoeuvre from Cosmos 2519 yesterday but instead Cosmos 2521 converted its perigee to a new apogee:

Jul 19.827    97.899 deg      91.613 min     346-362 km    223 deg
Jul 20.583    97.901            90.929           292- 348           93

Aug 10        97.90°           90.85 min    291-341km
by natural influences
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519/2521/2523 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: weedenbc on 08/14/2018 03:13 pm
Today the Assistant Secretary of State for Arms Control, Verification and Compliance, Yleem D.S. Poblete, made a a statement to the Conference on Disarmament regarding recent Russian activities in orbit:
https://geneva.usmission.gov/2018/08/14/remarks-by-assistant-secretary-yleem-d-s-poblete-at-the-conference-on-disarmament/

Specifically of interest to this thread:

Quote
Mr. President, in October of last year the Russian Ministry of Defense deployed a space object they claimed was a “space apparatus inspector.” But its behavior on-orbit was inconsistent with anything seen before from on-orbit inspection or space situational awareness capabilities, including other Russian inspection satellite activities. We are concerned with what appears to be very abnormal behavior by a declared “space apparatus inspector.” We don’t know for certain what it is and there is no way to verify it.

Does anyone know which object they are referring to, and what specific behavior it's been displaying that would be "inconsistent"?

Title: Re: Kosmos 2519/2521/2523 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: Phillip Clark on 08/14/2018 04:15 pm
I would assume that the reference is to the deployment of Cosmos 2523 with the Russians have said was an inspector satellite, and the "inconsistency" would be that the satellite does not appear to have inspected any other satellite: unless it has observed other satellites from great distances.
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519/2521/2523 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: Phillip Clark on 08/15/2018 02:33 pm
BBC catches up with the story but apparently they don't know which satellite is being talked about.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-45194333
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519/2521/2523 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: Star One on 08/15/2018 03:10 pm
BBC catches up with the story but apparently they don't know which satellite is being talked about.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-45194333

There’s no indication who wrote the piece was hoping it might be Mr Amos as he usually more often than not knows what he’s talking about.
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519/2521/2523 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: Blackstar on 08/15/2018 06:33 pm
Mystery Russian satellite's behaviour raises alarm in US
BBC, 15 August, 2018

A mysterious Russian satellite displaying "very abnormal behaviour" has raised alarm in the US, according to a State Department official.

"We don't know for certain what it is and there is no way to verify it," said assistant secretary Yleem Poblete at a conference in Switzerland on 14 August.

She voiced fears that it was impossible to say if the object may be a weapon.

Russia has dismissed the comments as "unfounded, slanderous accusations based on suspicions".

The satellite in question was launched in October last year.

"[The satellite's] behaviour on-orbit was inconsistent with anything seen before from on-orbit inspection or space situational awareness capabilities, including other Russian inspection satellite activities," Ms Poblete told the conference on disarmament in Switzerland.

"Russian intentions with respect to this satellite are unclear and are obviously a very troubling development," she added, citing recent comments made by the commander of Russia's Space Forces, who said adopting "new prototypes of weapons" was a key objective for the force.

Ms Poblete said that the US had "serious concerns" that Russia was developing anti-satellite weapons.

https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-45194333


That is based upon this:


https://www.state.gov/t/avc/rls/285128.htm

Title: Re: Kosmos 2519/2521/2523 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: B. Hendrickx on 08/15/2018 10:24 pm

Russia has dismissed the comments as "unfounded, slanderous accusations based on suspicions".

To the best of my knowledge there has so far been no official Russian reaction to Poblete's speech. All I've seen in Russian media reports are reactions from experts, like this one from Igor Marinin, the editor-in-chief of "Novosti kosmonavtiki" magazine:

http://nsn.fm/in-the-world/zayavleniya-ssha-o-nenormalnom-povedenii-sputnika-rf-nazvali-politicheskoy-purgoy.html

(my quick translation)

Quote
"The Americans are overreacting. Apparently, the time has come for that and they've found a reason. They've most likely been following the movements of the satellite and seeing where it is flying to. [They're making a big fuzz about the fact] that it is maneuvering. At the same time, they fail to mention that America also has satellites that maneuver and can approach our satellites. This is a purely political game".

"This is a secret satellite. For which purposes it is being used is very difficult to say, but it is a fact that it is maneuvering. This means it can approach other satellites, both Russian and foreign. This is nothing new. The Americans have similar satellites that can also approach satellites of friendly countries and collect certain information. What kind of information they collect, how they can interact with one another or with an enemy satellite is top-secret information that neither the Americans nor we can and will reveal".

"Neither we nor they have any evidence that combat systems have been placed into orbit. There is no evidence whatsoever that our satellite or American inspector satellites carry weapons to damage enemy satellites".


One comment : it seems to be the absence of maneuvers by Cosmos-2523 that has raised suspicion about its true mission. But then none of the journalists or experts who have reported and commented on Poblete's speech seem to have taken the trouble to figure out what satellite she was reallly talking about.



Title: Re: Kosmos 2519/2521/2523 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: Phillip Clark on 08/16/2018 08:00 am
For anyone who is interested, I have just sent off "Cosmos 2519 et al: Further Operations, January-July 2018" to the British Interplanetary Society's Spaceflight magazine.   No idea how soon it will be published.   It covers the activities through to the end of July (as the title implies).   So I expect the satellite manoeuvres to start again in the next few days.  ;D

Update - been told that the article is scheduled for the December issue of Spaceflight which comes out in early November.
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519/2521/2523 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: input~2 on 08/16/2018 10:50 am
Today the Assistant Secretary of State for Arms Control, Verification and Compliance, Yleem D.S. Poblete, made a a statement to the Conference on Disarmament regarding recent Russian activities in orbit:
https://geneva.usmission.gov/2018/08/14/remarks-by-assistant-secretary-yleem-d-s-poblete-at-the-conference-on-disarmament/ (https://geneva.usmission.gov/2018/08/14/remarks-by-assistant-secretary-yleem-d-s-poblete-at-the-conference-on-disarmament/)

Specifically of interest to this thread:

Quote
Mr. President, in October of last year the Russian Ministry of Defense deployed a space object they claimed was a “space apparatus inspector.” But its behavior on-orbit was inconsistent with anything seen before from on-orbit inspection or space situational awareness capabilities, including other Russian inspection satellite activities. We are concerned with what appears to be very abnormal behavior by a declared “space apparatus inspector.” We don’t know for certain what it is and there is no way to verify it.

Does anyone know which object they are referring to, and what specific behavior it's been displaying that would be "inconsistent"?


"deployed in October of last year" matches the time when Kosmos 2523 was separated in orbit from Kosmos 2521 (i.e. October 30)
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519/2521/2523 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: Star One on 08/16/2018 12:14 pm
For anyone who is interested, I have just sent off "Cosmos 2519 et al: Further Operations, January-July 2018" to the British Interplanetary Society's Spaceflight magazine.   No idea how soon it will be published.   It covers the activities through to the end of July (as the title implies).   So I expect the satellite manoeuvres to start again in the next few days.  ;D

Update - been told that the article is scheduled for the December issue of Spaceflight which comes out in early November.

Look forward to it. I wish some of the news organisations commenting on this would properly interview someone like you who actually knows the topic.
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519/2521/2523 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: Phillip Clark on 08/16/2018 12:41 pm
Look forward to it. I wish some of the news organisations commenting on this would properly interview someone like you who actually knows the topic.

Thank you.   I spoke with someone at the BBC this morning and perhaps something will appear on BBC Radio 4 or World Service radio.   Who knows?
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519/2521/2523 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: Star One on 08/16/2018 02:53 pm
Look forward to it. I wish some of the news organisations commenting on this would properly interview someone like you who actually knows the topic.

Thank you.   I spoke with someone at the BBC this morning and perhaps something will appear on BBC Radio 4 or World Service radio.   Who knows?

Will keep an ear out for this.
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519/2521/2523 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: jcm on 08/16/2018 07:20 pm
Look forward to it. I wish some of the news organisations commenting on this would properly interview someone like you who actually knows the topic.

Thank you.   I spoke with someone at the BBC this morning and perhaps something will appear on BBC Radio 4 or World Service radio.   Who knows?

I have been trying to send journalists in your direction!
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519/2521/2523 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: Phillip Clark on 08/16/2018 08:10 pm
I have been trying to send journalists in your direction!

Thank you Jonathan!   None so far, but at least being retired I have enough time for such things. ;)
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519/2521/2523 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: weedenbc on 08/16/2018 08:44 pm
I posted a short Twitter thread about it this morning, nothing really new from what this thread already contains:
https://twitter.com/brianweeden/status/1030088376781688832

I do find it interesting that the Russians registered Cosmos 2519, 2521, and 2523 with the UN in a fairly-timely fashion.
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519/2521/2523 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: Alter Sachse on 08/17/2018 05:47 am
A good summary (Jonathan McDowell):

http://planet4589.org/jsr.html
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519/2521/2523 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: jcm on 08/17/2018 05:57 am
A good summary (Jonathan McDowell):

http://planet4589.org/jsr.html

For the benefit of those finding this thread in years to come, the permanent link is
http://planet4589.org/space/jsr/back/news.752.txt

I forgot to add one thing to the summary:
https://twitter.com/planet4589/status/1030327420140879872
Quote
The total delta-V demonstrated by the Russian 'mystery' sats:  K-2519 125 m/s, K-2521 204 m/s,  K-2523 27 m/s. (For comparison, a Soyuz deorbit burn is 120 m/s, so these values are substantial but not unusual).
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519/2521/2523 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: input~2 on 08/17/2018 07:33 am
I posted a short Twitter thread about it this morning, nothing really new from what this thread already contains:
https://twitter.com/brianweeden/status/1030088376781688832 (https://twitter.com/brianweeden/status/1030088376781688832)

I do find it interesting that the Russians registered Cosmos 2519, 2521, and 2523 with the UN in a fairly-timely fashion.


Quote
brianweeden
‏Verified account @brianweeden
18 hours ago

/6 On 31 August, another smaller satellite, Cosmos 2521, separated from Cosmos 2519, which was again reported by Russia to the UN (albeit not until October)
A slight correction: Cosmos 2521 separated from Cosmos 2519 on August 23, not on October 31
NK forum members aptly refer to these successive separations as "matryoshka"  ;)
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519/2521/2523 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: Phillip Clark on 08/19/2018 07:46 am
Over the last week - as official interest in Cosmos 2523 has been expressed - I have noted that suddenly we are getting only one TLE/day for Cosmos 2519-2521-2523 and the elsets are being issued a day later than normal.   So the Space-Track file downloaded today with TLEs up to to 24:00 UT on August 18th has a single elset per object for August 17th.

Of course, since the minor TLE format change a few years ago which resulted in the set number always defaulting to "999", we have no way of knowing whether element sets are actually missing.
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519/2521/2523 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: Phillip Clark on 09/02/2018 07:24 am
Since the most recent Cosmos 2519-2521 manoeuvres ended around July 20 things have been quiet with these satellites.   At the end of August the orbits were:

Cosmos 2519
Aug 31.909    97.855 deg   94.379 min   315-662 km    133 deg (AoP)

Cosmos 2521
Aug 31.936    97.898          90.761         289-335          289

Cosmos 2523
Aug 31.892    97.846          96.871          555-663         296

For completeness there is the rocket stage that is still in orbit:

Blok I
Aug 31.880    98.034           92.757          277-542         325

Of course, I am sure that it is too soon to proclaim that the manoeuvres are complete and maybe something will happen again in the middle of this month?

And yes, I have the outline for a third Spaceflight article started ( ;)), but the plan is that this will cover the second year of operations - assuming that there are some! - and get submitted in July 2019.   Maybe by then the second 14F150 mission will be underway, throwing up more questions and confusion?
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519/2521/2523 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: B. Hendrickx on 09/05/2018 12:47 pm
Evidence for a possible link between the 14F150/Nivelir and Burevestnik projects. Copied from the Burevestnik thread.

https://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=45734.0

Quote
Yet another building contract related to the Burevestnik ASAT project has surfaced on the zakupki.gov.ru website:

http://zakupki.gov.ru/223/purchase/public/purchase/info/documents.html?regNumber=31806738240
Quote
- Предмет договора : МТР (отопительное оборудование)
- Объект строительства: Строительство (реконструкция) зданий и сооружений объекта 3006М (н.п. Ногинск-9) под размещение сегмента информационного обеспечения в рамках ОКР «Нивелир»,  «Буревестник», шифр объекта 1009/5, по адресу: Московская область, Ногинский район, п. Ногинск-9, в/ч 28289.

It deals with the delivery of heating systems to a building called 1009/5, which is literally described as “an information support segment in the framework of OKR (experimental design work) Nivelir and Burevestnik”. This building is part of “Object 3006M”, which is a code-name for the 821st Main Space Intelligence Center (the headquarters of Russia’s space surveillance network) in Noginsk-9 (Dubrovo), operated by Military Unit 28289. The contract was awarded this summer by a military construction company called FGUP GVSU N°12.

What is interesting here is that projects Burevestnik and Nivelir are mentioned together. Nivelir has been linked to the production code 14F150, which in turn has been linked to the Cosmos-2519/2521/2523 “space inspector” mission.  A likely role for the Main Space Intelligence Center in both projects (ASATs and inspectors) would be to assemble information on potential targets obtained by both optical and radar space surveillance sites spread across the country. 

The relation between Burevestnik and Nivelir could go further than that, such as the sharing of certain satellite components. One indication in that direction is that a company called TsNIIKhM is involved in both projects. TsNIIKhM signed a contract with NPO Lavochkin related to 14F150 on 1 December 2011 and is also mentioned in several contracts related to Burevestnik in 2016/2017 (see my earlier posts in the Burevestnik and Cosmos-2519/2521/2523 threads).

It’s also interesting to note that one month before signing the contract with NPO Lavochkin on 14F150, TsNIIKhM signed a contract with KB Tochmash (the “Nudelman bureau”), which is also known to be involved in Burevestnik. This contract is mentioned in this court document:.

https://sudact.ru/arbitral/doc/oVyn8HzaSIJp/

However, the document does not say what the contract was related to, so we can only speculate that it was related to Burevestnik. It is known from other court documents that TsNIIKhM signed a contract with MKB Kompas on a theme called “Burevestnik-M-ASN” (presumably related to satellite navigation equipment) one month after the contract with NPO Lavochkin.

https://sudact.ru/arbitral/doc/RacZXaWBtkUO/
https://sudact.ru/arbitral/doc/CCDZXZS5HzWb/
https://sudact.ru/arbitral/doc/4IiDdzWamdJE/

Putting the three contracts together, we have:

TsNIIKhM – KB Tochmash (possibly on Burevestnik) :  1 November 2011  (N° 89/11-22/845-G)
TsNIIKhM – NPO Lavochkin (on 14F150) :   1 December 2011  (N° 80/0027-I-12/839-G)
TsNIIKhM – MKB Kompas (on Burevestnik-M-ASN) : 1 January 2012 (N° 879G) (probably just the last part of the actual contract number)

There are some similarities in the contract numbers, but I don't know if these are significant.

Also note that the themes “Burevestnik” and “Nivelir” (as well as “Napryazheniye”) appear right under one another in the annual reports of RNII Elektronstandart (a company that tests electronic components) for 2012, 2013 and 2014. Again, not necessarily indicative of a link, but interesting nevertheless. See for instance the 2012 report:

www.e-disclosure.ru/portal/FileLoad.ashx?Fileid=679596

And just a reminder that last month a US State Department official said that Cosmos-2523 has clearly not been doing what the Russians said it would do  (namely to perform close-up inspections of another satellite) and alluded to the fact that it may be related to a space weapon development program (see the C-2519/2521/2523 thread).

https://www.state.gov/t/avc/rls/285128.htm

I don’t know if that assumption is sheer speculation or based on intelligence.  At any rate, the apparent link between Burevestnik and Nivelir does make it conceivable that elements of Burevestnik are already  being tested in orbit.

Title: Re: Kosmos 2519/2521/2523 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: B. Hendrickx on 09/21/2018 11:33 pm
In some earlier posts in this thread mention was made of an OKR (“experimental design work”) called Nivelir-MNK-OZS that was to be carried out by  Information Satellite Systems (ISS Reshetnev) in Krasnoyarsk-26. The question was if it had any relation to Nivelir/14F150, the name and production index that have been associated with the Cosmos-2519/2521/2523 mission.

Closer analysis now shows that this OKR is indeed related to the Cosmos-2519/2521/2523 mission (more specifically to its ground control facilities) and also that the system name for the Nivelir project is 14K167.

OKR Nivelir-MNK-OZS shows up in the annual report of ISS for 2015, which is downloadable here:

https://www.e-disclosure.ru/portal/FileLoad.ashx?Fileid=1208652

The purpose of the OKR is described as “Working out technical proposals for the development of means to increase interference immunity”.

The OKR also appears in the annual reports for 2014, 2016 and 2017 of NPO PM Razvitiye, a daughter company of ISS Reshetnev responsible for building ground-based satellite antennas (NPO PM is the former name of ISS Reshetnyev and “Razvitiye” means “development”). All the reports can be downloaded here (the 2015 report is not available):

https://www.e-disclosure.ru/portal/files.aspx?id=19692&type=2

In these reports the extension is somewhat longer, namely Nivelir-MNK-OZS-PPK-PPA. The purpose of the OKR is literally given as follows: “Development, production and testing of fully rotatable antennas for the antenna system of the reception and transmission equipment (PPA) of the reception and transmission complex (PPK) of a unified ground station (OZS). The reports give the following timelines:

2014 report : “3 phases – April 2016"
2016 report : “2 phases – July 2016”
2017 report : “7 phases – March 2021”

The key to finding more information on this OKR is the term “unified ground station” (obyedinyonnaya zemnaya stantsiya or  OZS). It is explained in this 2013 article by two specialists of the Mozhaiskiy Military Space Academy:

http://www.h-es.ru/images/archive/Nom-6-2013.pdf
(see p. 38-42)

In a nutshell, an OZS is a ground station that combines the functions of sending commands to satellites and receiving data from satellites for subsequent transmission to customers. In the past these functions were split between individual ground stations. One of the advantages of an OZS mentioned by the authors is that it can prevent “unauthorized access to information”. The article also links the OZS to a “future special-purpose space system” (“special purpose” being an often used euphemism in Russian for “military”) and calls for setting up specialized ground stations that are used only for specific satellites or satellite constellations. The article also mentions the acronym MNK (which appears in the extensions of the OKR names). Although it is not deciphered, it can be inferred that it stands for “Multifunctional Ground Complex”, which obviously refers to its dual function.     

A search for “Unified ground station” on the zakupki.gov.ru website turned up three results:

1/

http://zakupki.gov.ru/223/purchase/public/purchase/info/documents.html?regNumber=31200027283

A contract signed between TsNIIKhM and ISS Reshetnev on 19 December 2012 under which ISS Reshetnev is to deliver equipment for an OZS to TsNIIKhM by February 2014. The documentation includes six pages of technical specifications for the OZS. The purpose of the OZS is to exchange flight control data with satellites in the S-band (2.-2.4 GHz), measure the navigational parameters of satellites and receive  “scientific information” from satellites in the X-band (8.025-8.4 GHz). The S-band frequencies are used for uplink (2025 Mhz-2120 Mhz) and downlink (2200-2300 Mhz) and the X-band only for downlink.

The OZS was to use a 5-6 m fully rotatable parabolic antenna (OPU 5.0N) operating in both the S-bands and X-bands. The recommended manufacturer was ZAO Polyus-RM. The website of this company has some information on this antenna, which it says is used for the reception of telemetry from low-orbiting satellites (see attached image):

http://polus-rm.ru/product/antenna-5-0-n/

The contract may eventually have gone to NPO PM Razvitiye (as would have to be concluded from its annual reports), but none of the antennas mentioned on its website meet the requirements for the OZS (all of them are C/Ku-band antennas to be used in conjunction with geostationary satellites) :

http://www.npopmrazvitie.ru/produktsiya/antenni-zemnich-stantsiy-sputnikovoy-svyazi-i-televideniya

The TsNIIKhM-ISS Reshetnev contract does not say for which space project the OZS is intended and where the OZS is supposed to be built. However, as I have mentioned in earlier posts, TsNIIKhM signed a contract with NPO Lavochkin on 14F150/Nivelir on 1 December 2011 and appears to be a key player in the project. Also, a Dutch radio amateur (Cees Basse)  picked up signals from Cosmos-2521 at 2280 MHz (see Reply 239 in this thread), which is within the 2200-2300 MHz S-band downlink range mentioned in the technical specifications.

Quote
Radio monitoring shows that COSMOS 2521 [42919/17037D] is transmitting at 2280MHz. Signals were received in Western Europe only on the Eastern most passes where the satellite was above the horizon, but not when it passed overhead. This suggests the transmitter is only active over Russian territory.

The technical specifications also note that the time to switch from one satellite to another was to be no more than 5 minutes. This is exactly what would have been needed if the OZS was tracking Cosmos-2519 and 2521 when they were flying in close formation.

2/

http://zakupki.gov.ru/223/purchase/public/purchase/info/common-info.html?regNumber=31401524779

This is a tender organized by ISS Reshetnev for the delivery of computer equipment under OKR Nivelir-MNK-ONZ. The tender was won in October 2014 by a company called OOO Kompintegro. Little else can be learned from the documentation published here.

3/

http://zakupki.gov.ru/223/purchase/public/purchase/info/common-info.html?epz=true&style44=false&noticeInfoId=4754128

This is a tender organized by a Siberian military construction company (FGUP GUSST Nr. 9)   in August 2016 related to what is described as:

Quote
«Строительство и реконструкция технических зданий №№350,86 воинской части 14058, обеспечивающих размещение объединенной земной станции и элементов системы связи и передачи данных комплекса 14K167».
Адрес и шифр объекта – г. Енисейск Красноярский край, шифр: 1009/3 «Нивелир».

Which literally translates as:

Quote
“Construction and reconstruction of technical buildings nr. 350 and 86 of military unit 14058, ensuring the installation of a unified ground station and elements of the communication and data relay system of the 14K167 complex”.
Address and code of the object : town of Yeniseysk, Krasnoyarsk region, code : 1009/3 “Nivelir”

There were no bids for the contract and the tender was declared void (however, judging from the documentation, it was just for the delivery of building machines and this doesn't mean the construction work was never finished).

This is unmistakable evidence that an OZS was built for the Nivelir project and that the Nivelir-MNK-OZS contracts in which ISS Reshetnyev and NPO PM Razvitiye are involved as subcontractors are indeed related to the Cosmos-2519/2521/2523 mission. Although “Nivelir” is not mentioned by name in the TsNIIKhM-ISS Reshetnyov contract, there can be little doubt that it is about Nivelir as well. It remains hard to determine though what exactly TsNIIKhM’s role in the Nivelir project is. It seems to be a manufacturer of small satellites, but according to the company’s website its KBPM division is also involved in development of ground control infrastructure.

The contract also tells us that the system name for Nivelir is 14K167 (this is a Ministry of Defense/GRAU designator that denotes the combination of the launch vehicle and the payload and possibly also cosmodrome infrastructure, whereas the index 14F150 refers only to the satellite (or perhaps three satellites in this case)). The index 14K167 had been identified before, but had never been linked to Nivelir. It was mentioned in this announcement of an environmental impact assessment hearing for the Plesetsk cosmodrome:

http://www.mirniy.ru/info/ads/5273-obschestvennye-slushaniya.html

Note that the system name for Burevestnik (likely a co-orbital ASAT project) is the next number, namely 14K168, a possible indication that the two projects were approved with short intervals.

The location of the OZS for Nivelir is Yeniseysk-4 (also named Polyus) just east of the town of Yeniseysk on the banks of the Yenisey river in Siberia (the closest major city being Krasnoyarsk). This is home to a satellite ground control facility known as 46 OKIK or NIP-4. Its history goes back all the way to 1956 and it was involved in tracking the first Sputnik.  It is operated by Military Unit 14058. More background (plus a satellite image showing its location) here:

http://www.kik-sssr.ru/04_Eniseisk.htm

It is not to be confused with a nearby Voronezh radar complex that was recently built as part of Russia’s missile early warning network. This is just west of Yeniseysk near the village of Ust-Kem and is operated by Military Unit 84685.  Judging from online contracts, the satellite control facility and the radar complex do seem to have the same “Object” number (Object 7345).

The contract refers to the OZS as “1009/3”. In my previous post in this thread I mentioned a facility in Noginsk-9/Dubrovo known as “1009/5”, which is described in a recent contract as “an information support segment” for Nivelir and Burevestnik. It is not clear if that is an OZS or another type of ground control facility. At any rate, “1009” seems to be a general code-name for ground infrastructure for Nivelir, with the number behind the slash denoting the specific facility. That means there must be at least three other such facilities called 1009/1, 1009/2 and 1009/4. It is not clear if all them are related to  both Nivelir and Burevestnik. There is ground infrastructure for Burevestnik with the code 7511 that doesn’t seem to bear any relation to Nivelir (see the Burevestnik thread).

One of the other 1009 facilities for Nivelir is likely to be in Yelizovo in the Kamchatka peninsula. A procurement plan of the military construction company Spetsstroi-Engineering published in 2015 referred to buildings for 14K167 in both Yeniseysk and Yelizovo. See a post by Stan Black on the NK forum (the link to the procurement plan no longer works):   

http://novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/forum/forum14/topic14568/?PAGEN_1=8

Quote
Строителство технической позиции под размещение изделия 14К167 г. Енисейск Красноярский край
Строителство технической позиции под размещение изделия 14К167 г. Елизово

Yelizovo (or to be more exact a nearby place called Vulkannyy) is the location of a satellite ground facility known as 65 OKIK or NIP-6, operated by Military Unit 14086.  This also has a history going back to the late 1950s:

https://www.kik-sssr.ru/06_Elizovo.htm

Two more OSZ stations are mentioned in these environmental impact assessment reports :

https://e-ecolog.ru/reestr/doc/1102651
https://e-ecolog.ru/reestr/doc/214982

The first is at 48 OKIK/NIP-8 in Kudinovo (Maloyaroslavets-61) in the Kaluga region, operated by Military Unit 34122. The OSZ is said to have been manufactured by ISS Reshetnev. More on 48 OKIK/NIP-8 is here:

https://www.kik-sssr.ru/08_Maloiar.htm

The second OZS is said to be part of “Object 61/2B”, which is a facility belonging to ISS Reshetnev in Krasnoyarsk. Strangely enough, the manufacturer of this OSZ is given as “OOO Firma Spektr”. Object 61/2B appears in various contracts, one related to in-flight tests of the 14F149 Blagovest military comsat.

However, there is no evidence that these two OZS stations have anything to do with Nivelir. Of course, there could also be OSZ stations for other projects. For instance, this paper mentions the planned use of an OSZ operating in the X and S-bands for a remote sensing satellite called Smotr-V.

http://vital.lib.tsu.ru/vital/access/services/Download/vital:2317/SOURCE01

The construction of various dedicated ground facilities for Nivelir suggests that Cosmos-2519/2521/2523 is not an experimental one-off mission, but only the first of several more to come. Note that the 2017 report of NPO PM Razvitiye talks about several phases of its involvement in the project extending into early 2021.
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519/2521/2523 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: B. Hendrickx on 09/28/2018 02:51 pm
Here is another tender related to the construction of Nivelir's "OZS" ground control station at NIP-4 in Yeniseysk-4 (see the previous post):

http://zakupki.gov.ru/223/purchase/public/purchase/info/common-info.html?regNumber=31604556244

The tender was announced in December 2016 by the Siberian military construction company FGUP GUSST N°9 and was about the delivery of power supply systems and optical fibre cables for "buildings 86 and 350", also described as "Object 1009/3 Nivelir". It was based on a government contract signed on 26 February 2016. The contract was awarded to a company called OOO SIBMAUNT, apparently sometime in January/February 2017.

The documentation includes a timeline for the construction work, which was scheduled to begin in April 2017 and end in December 2017. This means it was probably not finished by the time the Cosmos-2519 mission was launched in June 2017, but it is hard to say whether it was critical to support the mission or not.
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519/2521/2523 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: Phillip Clark on 10/02/2018 06:47 am
Second consecutive month passes with no manoeuvres.

Cosmos 2519
Oct  1.461    97.850 deg   94.322 min   315-656 km    27 deg
Cosmos 2521
Oct  1.521    97.894         90.591         281-326        173
Cosmos 2523
Oct  1.520    97.842         96.871         554-664        194

The total delta-V of Cosmos 2521 displayed to date is approximately the same as those displayed by Cosmos 2499 and Cosmos 2504.
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519/2521/2523 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: B. Hendrickx on 10/02/2018 12:08 pm
https://tass.ru/kosmos/5624853
https://tass.ru/kosmos/5625023

Speaking on Russia's Channel One TV station yesterday, Roscosmos chief Dmitriy Rogozin denied reports that Russian inspector satellites may be carrying ASAT systems. "Yes, such machines can be used ... to damage satellites, but we don't do things like that", Rogozin said. He added that Roscosmos is only planning to use inspector type satellites for future in-orbit servicing and he expects Russia's entire orbital constellation to be serviceable in 10 to 15 years.

At the same time, Rogozin didn't rule out the possibility that America's X-37B spaceplanes can be used to carry space-based weapons.

Title: Re: Kosmos 2519/2521/2523 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: B. Hendrickx on 10/02/2018 10:23 pm
I’ve written an article on Russian inspector satellites as well as the Burevestnik project for Jane’s Intelligence Review. The full article is behind a paywall, but the first paragraphs are here:

https://www.janes.com/images/assets/463/83463/Russia_develops_co-orbital_anti-satellite_capability.pdf

The section on the inspector satellites (mainly dealing with the Kosmos-2519 mission) is largely a summary of what has already been written in this thread. What I have added is evidence for research being conducted in Russia on satellites to observe the geostationary belt, the same region where the United States has deployed virtually all of its experimental inspector satellites over the past decade or so (MiTEX, GSSAP, ANGELS and EAGLE).

Vyacheslav Fateyev, a former director of the MAK Vympel company (which plays a leading role in space surveillance systems), noted in a 2014 article that future Russian inspector satellites should primarily operate in GEO since current ground-based space surveillance systems are advanced enough to obtain detailed imagery of satellites in low Earth orbits (LEO). Fateyev called for building small GEO inspector satellites weighing less than 10 kg, which would be hard to spot from the ground.

http://www.vko.ru/oruzhie/kak-povysit-effektivnost-pvo-skkp-sprn-i-pro

This patent filed by the Kometa Corporation in 2013 is about a satellite to be placed in a near-geostationary orbit to accurately determine the positions of objects in GEO. 

Russian version of the patent:
https://patents.google.com/patent/RU2542836C2/ru
English machine translation:
https://patents.google.com/patent/RU2542836C2/en

One of the authors of this patent, Pyotr Zhidkov, has also published other material on GEO inspection systems. This, for instance, is a more recent patent that he was involved in (a proposal for a GEO monitoring system based on an earlier proposal by NPO Lavochkin)   

Russian:
https://patents.google.com/patent/RU2659379C1/ru
English machine translation:
https://patents.google.com/patent/RU2659379C1/en

The Lavochkin proposal has been mentioned in this thread before and was published in a 2015 issue of Lavochkin’s Vestnik magazine. The proposed buses were Navigator, Karat-200 or a hitherto unidentified Lavochkin platform called MSS-A:

https://www.laspace.ru/upload/iblock/fd1/fd1ace1832b2224dc012a18c14e2f6c7.pdf
(p. 16-22 : article in Russian)

Pyotr Zhidkov has also been involved in research on space-based laser rangefinders to determine the orbits of space debris.
http://contenant.ru/tezisy.pdf
(p. 108 : article in Russian)

Another person who has regularly written on satellites to monitor GEO is  A. Pozdnyakov of the research institute of the Aerospace Defense Forces. One example is here:

http://www.bmstu.ru/content/documents/2018_Abstracts_all.pdf
(p. 316 : abstract in Russian)

Despite the interest shown in optical GEO monitoring satellites, there is no convincing evidence as of now that such satellites are actually under development (assuming that the Olimp satellite of ISS Reshetnev currently in GEO is not being used for optical observations but for eavesdropping or something entirely different).  The TsNIIKhM institute (known to be involved in Kosmos-2519 and Burevestnik) ordered parts for cubesat class satellites earlier this year (the type proposed for GEO inspector satellites by Fateyev), but it is hard to say whether these are related to future LEO inspectors, GEO inspectors or Burevestnik.

- an order for a Cube-ADCS 3-axis stabilization system (produced by the South African company CubeSpace)
http://zakupki.gov.ru/223/purchase/public/purchase/info/common-info.html?regNumber=31806232980

- an order for a small star tracker called AZDK-1 (produced by the Russian company OOO Azmerit, part of the Skolkovo Innovation Center)
http://zakupki.gov.ru/223/purchase/public/purchase/info/common-info.html?regNumber=31806135457

Finally, on the organizational side, the director of the Scientific Research Insitute of Television said in a 2015 article that work on space-based space surveillance systems was being co-ordinated by MAK Vympel (part of the Almaz-Antey concern). However, the absence of any reference to such systems in MAK Vympel’s annual reports after 2014 may indicate that this co-ordinating role has been taken over by the Kometa Corporation, which joined Almaz-Antey in February 2015. In a 2015 interview with the Interfax-AVN news agency, Almaz-Antey’s general director, Pavel Sozinov, hinted at the possibility that Kometa’s space-related activities could be expanded to areas of “air and space defence” other than missile early warning.

http://www.militarynews.ru/story.asp?rid=2&nid=369732

This could include space-based space surveillance and anti-satellite projects. Kometa also co-ordinated the Soviet-era co-orbital ASAT project “IS”.
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519/2521/2523 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: B. Hendrickx on 10/05/2018 07:56 am
Nothing new, but not yet posted here I think : a report on the Cosmos-2519/2521/2523 mission aired by CNN in August after a US official declared in Geneva that the mission may be related to the development of space weapons. Has a pretty alarming undertone to it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dy_OaMWQatI
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519/2521/2523 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: B. Hendrickx on 10/26/2018 03:29 pm
More contracts  related to the construction of the 1009/5 facility in Noginsk-9 appeared on the zakupki.gov.ru website early this month. As explained earlier in this thread, 1009/5 has been described as an “information support segment” for the Nivelir and Burevestnik projects.

The new contracts are here:

http://zakupki.gov.ru/223/purchase/public/purchase/info/common-info.html?regNumber=31806966958
http://zakupki.gov.ru/223/purchase/public/purchase/info/common-info.html?regNumber=31806979669
http://zakupki.gov.ru/223/purchase/public/purchase/info/common-info.html?regNumber=31806979679
http://zakupki.gov.ru/223/purchase/public/purchase/info/common-info.html?regNumber=31806993132
http://zakupki.gov.ru/223/purchase/public/purchase/info/common-info.html?regNumber=31806993320

Some of the information contained in these contracts has also made it possible to locate two earlier contracts for 1009/5, one in September 2017 and another in July 2018:

http://zakupki.gov.ru/223/purchase/public/purchase/info/common-info.html?regNumber=31705532846
http://zakupki.gov.ru/223/purchase/public/purchase/info/common-info.html?regNumber=31806708484

All the contracts were awarded by the military construction company FGUP GVSU N°12. Unfortunately, nothing much new can be learned from these contracts, except that two of the buildings that are part of 1009/5 are called 165B and 165D.  All the contracts are based on a contract signed between FGUP GVSU N°12 and the Ministry of Defense on 25 August 2016. This has the number  1617187377352090942000000 and is also referred to as “Deal Nr. M0012”. The fact that this is an ongoing construction project would indicate that this facility is not yet actively being used for the Cosmos-2519/2521/2523 mission. At the same time, it shows that Nivelir (as well as Burevestnik) is likely to be turned into an operational system that will see launches on a regular basis.

In Reply #313 I wrote about so-called “Unified Ground Stations” (Russian acronym : OZS) for the Nivelir project. One of these (identified as 1009/3) is situated at NIP-4 in Yeniseisk (Siberia). It is not clear if 1009/5 in Noginsk-9 is also an OZS or another type of ground facility. 

One of the contracts related to OZS that I mentioned in that post was signed between TsNIIKhM (Central Scientific Research Institute of Chemistry and Mechanics) and ISS Reshetnev in December 2012:

http://zakupki.gov.ru/223/purchase/public/purchase/info/documents.html?regNumber=31200027283

The contract does not specifically refer to Nivelir, but, as I explained in that post, there are strong reasons to believe that it is related to the project. I’ve now found that TsNIIKhM made an initial attempt to find a subcontractor for this work in November 2011, but that no bids were received by the deadline of 23 November 2011:

http://zakupki.gov.ru/pgz/public/action/orders/info/common_info/show?source=epz&notificationId=1999386

Another attempt followed almost a year later in October 2012 and again no bids were received by the deadline of 29 October.

http://zakupki.gov.ru/pgz/public/action/orders/info/order_document_list_info/show?source=epz&notificationId=4468530

A third tender was then launched in early November 2012 and this resulted in the signing of a contract with ISS Reshetnev (nr. 31200027283/4719D) on 19 December 2012. Incidentally, one interesting element from the technical specifications for the OZS that I didn't mention in the earlier post is that the ground station is designed to work with satellites operating at altitudes between 300 and 2,000 km. This could mean that future Nivelir missions will use other orbital regimes than the current one.

What all this tells us about the organizational background of the project is that TsNIIKhM was likely involved in Nivelir even before it signed a contract on the project with NPO Lavochkin on 1 December 2012. This is also confirmed in documentation related to the testing of an SGK-5 control moment gyroscope for the project that appeared online last February (and was mentioned earlier in this thread):

http://zakupki.gov.ru/223/purchase/public/purchase/info/documents.html?regNumber=31806164727

Quote
Основанием для выполнения работ является договор №130-185/17 от 16.06.2017 г., заключенный АО «РНИИ «Электронстандарт» и АО «НИИ командных приборов». Работа выполняется в соответствии с «Положением о порядке комплектования электронной компонентной базой аппаратуры изделий ракетно-космической техники» («Положение ЭКБ РКТ») и на основании дополнительного соглашения к договору №2/1-1030-13 от 10.01.2013 г., заключенного АО «НИИ командных приборов» и ФГУП «НПО им. С.А. Лавочкина» в рамках контракта №80/0027-И-12/839-Г от 01.12.2011 г., заключенный ФГУП «НПО им. С.А. Лавочкина» и ФГУП «ЦНИИХМ» во исполнение государственного контракта №102/18/2011 от 30.09.2011 г., заключенного ФГУП «ЦНИИХМ» и ФКУ «ГНТЦ «Гарант».

This says that the contract between NPO Lavochkin and TsNIIKhM of 1 December 2011 (nr.80/0027-I-12/839G) was in turn based on “a government contract” signed between TsNIIKhM and a mysterious organization called FKU GNTTs Garant on 30 September 2011 (nr.102/18/2011).  That could be the official start date of the project, but usually projects like this begin with the signing of a contract between the Ministry of Defense and the prime contractor.  GNTTs Garant (State Scientific Technical Center Garant) is subordinate to the Ministry of Economic Development (Minekonomrazvitiya). Little can be learned about this organization from online sources except that it was founded in 1995 by a certain Aleksandr Khomitsevich and is now headed by Andrei Kuzyryov. It is said to be engaged in “scientific research in the field of natural and technical sciences”.
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519/2521/2523 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: Phillip Clark on 11/01/2018 06:55 am
A third consecutive calendar month goes by and there has been no manoeuvre activity from these satellites.   Perhaps it was planned that their mission would last ~12 months and of course that has now passed by?   Having said that, the Russians will probably take that as a sign that more manoeuvring is appropriate!

The latest orbital data from the TLEs are:

Cosmos 2519
Oct 31.932    97.845 deg      94.284 minutes     317-651 km    280 deg
   
Blok I
Nov  1.187    98.040             92.548                 274-525         103

Cosmos 2521
Oct 31.875    97.889             90.328                 272-309           59

Cosmos 2523
Oct 31.945    97.838             96.870                 553-665           95
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519/2521/2523 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: Phillip Clark on 11/03/2018 07:13 am
As predicted in my last posting - some movement!   Cosmos 2521 has raised perigee.

Nov  1.879    97.889 deg      90.320 min     272-308 km    56 deg
Nov  2.885    97.888            90.631            302-309         27
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519/2521/2523 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: Alter Sachse on 11/03/2018 08:07 am
As predicted in my last posting - some movement!   Cosmos 2521 has raised perigee.

Do you work together ?  ;)
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519/2521/2523 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: B. Hendrickx on 11/16/2018 09:12 am
I’ve found several more procurement documents related to the 14F150/Nivelir project. One is a contract signed between OKB MEI and NPTs Granat on 27 December 2013 for testing of foreign-built electronic components intended for an "on-board radio complex".

http://zakupki.gov.ru/223/purchase/public/purchase/info/common-info.html?regNumber=31400899602

The code name of the contract is Nivelir-BRK-RAD, where BRK stands for “on-board radio complex” and RAD presumably for “radiation” because the tests were designed to see if the electronic components can withstand space radiation.

OKB MEI  (Special Design Bureau of the Moscow Power Engineering Institute) was founded in 1947 and has delivered ground-based and on-board radio communications equipment for the space program since the early days of the Space Age. It was led for 35 years (1954-1989) by Aleksei Bogomolov. Its website mentions three on-board radio transmitters/receivers, but it is unclear if these have any relation to Nivelir:

http://www.okbmei.ru/innovation_4.html

OKB MEI is known to have developed the BRK for NPO Lavochkin’s small scientific satellites MKA-PN1 (Zond-PP) and MKA-PN2 (Relek) (launched in 2012 and 2014), which used the Karat bus. A report quoted on the NK forum in early 2011 said the company was also developing an on-board radio complex with radiation-hardened electronics for the Rezonans scientific satellites. These are now being built using the improved Karat-200 platform, but at the time of their conception early this decade may have been intended to use the original Karat bus. According to the same report, another BRK under development at the time was designed to operate in the X-band (7-8 GHz) and was capable among other things of transmitting telemetry at a rate of up to 1 Gbit/s. As mentioned in Reply 313, the OZS ground stations developed for Nivelir are equipped to receive data from the satellites in the X-band, so there could be a link between this BRK and the one for Nivelir. The report quoted on the NK forum is here (the link to the report no longer works):

http://novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/forum/forum12/topic9690/?PAGEN_1=17


NPTs Granat (Scientific Production Center Granat) is based in St.-Petersburg. It was established in 2005 and aside from manufacturing electronic components also performs radiation testing of Russian and foreign-built electronic components.

Its website is here:
http://npcgranat.ru/ru/

More background on the company here:
http://www.kuriermedia.ru/data/objects/2310/files/Katalog_Atom_23.pdf
(see p. 67)

The Nivelir-BRK-RAD contract is said to be based on a contract signed between OKB MEI and TsNIIKhM on 21 November 2011 (N° 11-8/11/841-G). As mentioned earlier in this thread, TsNIIKhM signed a contract on the Nivelir/14F150 project with NPO Lavochkin on 1 December 2011. In other words, this contract may be another indication that TsNIIKhM was involved in the project before NPO Lavochkin (see Reply 319). The earliest contract identified so far is one between TsNIIKhM and a mysterious organization called  GNTTs Garant on 30 September 2011. With three satellites involved in this mission, the organizational background of the project is undoubtedly complicated and many questions remain unanswered.

The other procurement documents are all related to the testing of Russian and foreign-built electronic components for the SGK-5 control moment gyro for 14F150 N2, which would appear to be the second mission in the series. Two documents related to this (published in December 2017 and February 2018) have been mentioned here earlier:

http://zakupki.gov.ru/223/purchase/public/purchase/info/common-info.html?regNumber=31705867410
http://zakupki.gov.ru/223/purchase/public/purchase/info/common-info.html?regNumber=31806164727

The three others that I’ve found are from November 2016, March 2017 and June 2017.

http://zakupki.gov.ru/223/purchase/public/purchase/info/common-info.html?regNumber=31604411892
http://zakupki.gov.ru/223/purchase/public/purchase/info/common-info.html?regNumber=31704911007
http://zakupki.gov.ru/223/purchase/public/purchase/info/common-info.html?regNumber=31705224464

They provide little new information on the SGK-5 gyros beyond what has already been described here (see Replies 183, 237 and 241). All that they tell us is that preparations for the second mission got underway well before the first one was launched in June 2017.
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519/2521/2523 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: Phillip Clark on 12/20/2018 06:52 am
Time for another Cosmos 2521 manoeuvre.

Dec 18.906    97.886 deg   90.322 minutes   287-293 km   186 deg
Dec 19.601    97.888         90.815               313- 316        163
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519/2521/2523 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: B. Hendrickx on 12/22/2018 11:36 pm
Three contracts available on the procurement website zakupki.gov.ru are presumably related to the testing of stealthy material for satellites flown under the Nivelir project. The work was ordered by a company called NII Ferrit-Domen, based in St.-Petersburg.

http://zakupki.gov.ru/223/purchase/public/purchase/info/common-info.html?regNumber=31705185185

A contract signed between NII Ferrit-Domen and AO Kompozit on 25 April 2017 which is related to the testing of "resistance to external factors”. The work was to be completed by 15 September 2017.  Contract name : Nivelir-RP-K.

http://zakupki.gov.ru/223/purchase/public/purchase/info/common-info.html?noticeInfoId=8324033

A contract signed on 31 August 2018 between NII Ferrit-Domen and AO Kompozit for unidentified tests.  The work was to be finished by 5 October 2018. Contract name : Nivelir-RP-K2.

http://zakupki.gov.ru/223/purchase/public/purchase/info/common-info.html?regNumber=31806941596

A draft contract between NII Ferrit-Domen and NIIP (Scientific Research Institute of Instruments) related to the testing of a “protective coating”. This documentation appeared online in September 2018. The actual signing date is unclear, but the work was to be finished by 5 October 2018.


NII Ferrit-Domen acts as a subcontractor for this work to TsNIIKhM. As more contracts on Nivelir surface, it is becoming ever more apparent that this is the prime contractor for the project. All three contracts are based on a contract (nr. 4984/1415G) signed between TsNIIKhM and NII Ferrit-Domen on 2 November 2016 and the first two also refer back to a contract signed between TsNIIKhM and a mysterious organization called GNTTs Garant on 30 September 2011. As mentioned earlier in this thread, this is the earliest contract related to Nivelir that has been identified so far (and possibly the very first one, although it does not involve the Ministry of Defense as one would expect). 

AO Kompozit, based in Korolyov outside Moscow, is a manufacturer of construction materials for spacecraft and satellites, but its role in these contracts seems to be limited to testing how materials produced by NII Ferrit-Domen stand up to space conditions. Its website describes the facilities used for such tests:

http://www.kompozit-mv.ru/index.php/ru/ispytaniya-materialov/76-ispytaniya-materialov-na-vozdejstvie-faktorov-kosmicheskogo-prostranstva

NIIP, based in Lytkvarino (Moscow region), performs radiation testing of satellite components.

The three contracts do not reveal what kind of protective coating was to be tested, but it is likely to be radar absorbing material which NII Ferrit-Domen is known to produce. See for instance this report (in English):

http://www.ato.ru/content/radar-absorbent-materials-roselektronika

The company’s website says this type of material (thin films of hydrogenated carbon with ferromagnetic nanoparticles) is being developed to lower the “radio visibility of ground-based, sea-based, airborne and space-based technology”.  It also mentions its ability to absorb radiation in the optical and infrared regions of the spectrum.

https://www.domen.ru/sverkhlegkie-radiopogloshchayushchie-materialy

“RP” in the contract names probably stands for “radar absorbing coating” (радиопоглощающее покрытие). Additional evidence that the contracts are related to stealthy material comes from the annual reports of NII Ferrit-Domen for 2012 and 2013, which mention joint work on radar absorbing materials with TsNIIKhM under a research project (NIR) called Nota-D.

2012 report (p. 14):
https://www.e-disclosure.ru/portal/FileLoad.ashx?Fileid=691499

2013 report (p. 15):
https://www.e-disclosure.ru/portal/FileLoad.ashx?Fileid=907966


TsNIIKhM itself has also done research on radar absorbing materials, as is clear from this patent (filed in 2014) (although no space-related applications are mentioned):

https://patents.google.com/patent/RU2566338C2/ru
(English machine translation available)

The company has also studied light-absorbing coatings that may be used in fabricating “electro-optic devices, spacecraft passive thermal protective components, telescope shields and solar collectors.” See this patent filed in 2011:

https://patents.google.com/patent/RU2467094C1/ru
(English machine translation available)

One of the persons involved in both patents is Vladimir Turkov, the head of TsNIIKhM’s Nanotechnology Scientific Research Center. According to TsNIIKhM’s former website, the center is involved in “developing new special materials and coatings”. Like the websites of many other Russian companies in the defense industry, TsNIIKhM’s website was recently changed to become much less informative than it used to be. Most of the information on the company's various divisions has now disappeared.

It is clear that the contracts signed by Ferrit-Domen are related to an upcoming mission under the Nivelir project, but that does not rule out the possibility that similar stealthy material is also being used by one or more satellites in the current Cosmos-2519/2521/2523 mission.


More procurement documentation for the Nivelir project showed up on zakupki.gov.ru earlier this month. 

http://zakupki.gov.ru/223/purchase/public/purchase/info/common-info.html?regNumber=31807222813
http://zakupki.gov.ru/223/purchase/public/purchase/info/common-info.html?regNumber=31807227145

These are two identical tenders by ISS Reshetnev for the delivery of equipment for “mobile ground stations used for reception and transmission [of signals]” (code names Nivelir-MNK-PPPS 1 and Nivelir-MNK-PPPS 2). The tender was awarded on 19 December to a company called OOO Kompintegro and a contract will be signed within the next month. The equipment is to be delivered within 90 days after the signing of the contract.

This is a further development of the Nivelir-MNK theme that I discussed in detail in Reply 313 in this thread. There the focus was on so-called “unified ground stations” (OZS) for Nivelir. It now appears that two simpler mobile ground stations are also under development for the project. The available documentation does not reveal much else about these plans. The technical specifications refer to “Theme 226”, which may be another code name for Nivelir.

Title: Re: Kosmos 2519/2521/2523 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: Phillip Clark on 01/01/2019 10:23 am
If anyone is wondering, my second Cosmos 2519 article for Spaceflight got delayed by a month or two, so I have just sent off the revised text and graphs for publication in the next issue or so.   I am hoping that it's OK because my declining sight is particularly lousy today.   Fingers crossed.
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519/2521/2523 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: Star One on 01/01/2019 01:22 pm
If anyone is wondering, my second Cosmos 2519 article for Spaceflight got delayed by a month or two, so I have just sent off the revised text and graphs for publication in the next issue or so.   I am hoping that it's OK because my declining sight is particularly lousy today.   Fingers crossed.

That’s good to hear. Any idea at all what issue it may appear in next year?
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519/2521/2523 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: Phillip Clark on 01/01/2019 02:21 pm
If anyone is wondering, my second Cosmos 2519 article for Spaceflight got delayed by a month or two, so I have just sent off the revised text and graphs for publication in the next issue or so.   I am hoping that it's OK because my declining sight is particularly lousy today.   Fingers crossed.
That’s good to hear. Any idea at all what issue it may appear in next year?

I am not sure whether it will be in the issue due later this month or the issue published next month.
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519/2521/2523 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: Star One on 01/01/2019 05:26 pm
If anyone is wondering, my second Cosmos 2519 article for Spaceflight got delayed by a month or two, so I have just sent off the revised text and graphs for publication in the next issue or so.   I am hoping that it's OK because my declining sight is particularly lousy today.   Fingers crossed.
That’s good to hear. Any idea at all what issue it may appear in next year?

I am not sure whether it will be in the issue due later this month or the issue published next month.

Thank you for the update.
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519/2521/2523 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: B. Hendrickx on 02/01/2019 09:40 am
Some newly uncovered information suggests that:

a) Cosmos-2521 likely has the same design as three inspector satellites launched as piggyback payloads on the Rokot booster in 2013-2015 (Cosmos-2491, 2499, 2504) and that all these are part of project Nivelir.
b) Burevestnik (presumably a co-orbital ASAT system) may use the same bus as the inspector satellites
c) all these satellites are built by the Central Scientific Research Institute of Chemistry and Mechanics (ЦНИИХМ, transliterated either as TsNIIKhM or CNIIHM).

These conclusions are largely based on a number of patents filed by TsNIIKhM which in turn led to other sources of information.   

One of the patents (placed online in July 2018) provides a strong clue that the Rokot-launched inspectors are a product of TsNIIKhM (their manufacturer had not been identified before). With TsNIIKhM already known to be a key player in Nivelir (see earlier posts here), this probably means that the inspectors launched by Rokot and the inspector deployed from Cosmos-2519 (Cosmos-2521) are the same type of satellite (one single company is unlikely to have built two different types of inspectors). This is also backed up by the fact that identical radio signals were picked up from the satellites (see Reply 239 in this thread) as well as by other evidence presented later in this post.

The patent in question is here:
https://patents.google.com/patent/RU2659411C1/ru
English machine translation:
https://patents.google.com/patent/RU2659411C1/en

It deals with a new method of performing ground-based test firings of satellite thrusters. The authors describe how this method can be applied to test firings of the K50-10.6 thrusters, which are thermal catalytic engines (monopropellant hydrazine thrusters) of the OKB Fakel design bureau. This most probably means that TsNIIKhM was involved in those test firings. The only satellites known to have carried these engines so far are Cosmos-2499 and Cosmos-2504, which rendezvoused with the Briz-KM upper stage that placed them into orbit. See this list of flown OKB Fakel engines on Fakel’s website:

https://fakel-russia.com/images/gallery/About/letnaya%20istoriya/KA_s_oborudovaniem.pdf

The first of the Rokot-launched inspectors (Cosmos-2491) is not in the list. There is no clear evidence that it performed maneuvers, meaning that either it did not have an operational engine unit or that its engine unit failed. The list does contain a satellite named Cosmos-2491 launched on 24 March 2014, but this is actually a Glonass satellite that was called Cosmos-2492. 

Cosmos-2521 (also likely to have the K50-10.6 thrusters) is not in the list either, but it was published shortly before the satellite’s release from Cosmos-2519 and has not been updated since. Cosmos-2519, the “parent satellite” built by NPO Lavochkin, is listed. It has a different type of hydrazine-fueled thermal catalytic thruster called K50-10.5.

Performance data for the K50-10.6 thruster are given on the OKB Fakel website (see attachment 1).
https://fakel-russia.com/images/gallery/produczia/fakel_tkd_en_print.pdf

While these thrusters may not seem powerful enough to account for the maneuvers performed by the inspector satellites, the satellites are so small that they are unlikely to have a second propulsion system. A probable clue as to how they made those maneuvers comes in two other patents as well as a handful of papers published by TsNIIKhM. All of their authors (Sergei Ulybyshev, Aleksandr Glushkov and Taras Gavrilenko) were also involved in the patent that mentions the test firings of the K50-10.6 thruster.

https://patents.google.com/patent/RU2610793C1/ru
(patent published in January 2016). English machine translation:
https://patents.google.com/patent/RU2610793C1/en

https://patents.google.com/patent/RU170380U1/ru
(patent published in July 2016). English machine translation:
https://patents.google.com/patent/RU170380U1/en

https://elibrary.ru/item.asp?id=24920643
(paper presented at a conference in September 2015, full version available for registered users of elibrary.ru)
http://engjournal.ru/articles/1813/1813.pdf
(paper published in 2018) (English abstract at the end of the article)
http://trudy.mai.ru/upload/iblock/2f0/Glushkov_Ulybyshev_rus.pdf?lang=ru&issue=101
(paper published in 2018)

These are all very technical with lots of mathematical formulae, but they seem to describe a fuel-efficient way of performing orbital maneuvers by carrying out short intermittent burns rather than one single long burn. Schematic representations of satellites published in these patents and papers may very well show the configuration of thrusters and reaction wheels on the inspector satellites (see attachments 2 and 3). The conference paper presented in September 2015 says the use of thrusters in this specific mode had already been tested in flight, “confirming the results of the mathematical simulations”. This must refer to either Cosmos-2499 or 2504 or to both.

Although none of these patents and papers mention orbital rendezvous or inspection, Glushkov and Gavrilenko did present papers related to orbital inspection at conferences back in 2012 and 2013, showing that they were involved in the development of the inspectors at an early stage. 

http://files.mai.ru/site/conf/iac/2012/Sbornik%20tezisov%20IAK_2012.pdf
(2012 conference, see p. 67-68)
http://conf56.mipt.ru/static/book-faki2.pdf
(2013 conference, see p. 41-42)


Yet another patent published by TsNIIKhM in February 2018 has made it possible to identify the propellant tank that feeds the K50-10.6 thrusters of the inspector satellites.

https://patents.google.com/patent/RU2673789C1/ru
(English machine translation)
https://patents.google.com/patent/RU2673789C1/en

The patent is about pressure relief valves. While it belongs to TsNIIKhM, a further check shows that the authors are actually affiliated with NIIMash (Scientific Research Institute of Machine Building) in Nizhnyaya Salda. NIIMash is best known as a manufacturer of small satellite thrusters, but also builds propellant tanks, not only for its own engines, but also for engines produced by other companies. The link between NIIMash and TsNIIKhM becomes clear in a paper co-authored by three of the patent holders (Sergei Buldashev, Yuri Arkhipov and Aleksandr Volkov) and presented at a conference organized by NPO Lavochkin in early September 2017.

https://elibrary.ru/item.asp?id=32364985
(This is an abstract of the paper. The full version can be downloaded by registered users of elibrary.ru)

It includes this excerpt:

Quote
Бак МВСК84 также прошел полныи цикл наземнои отработки и в настоящее время проходит летные испытания в составе ДУ разработки ОКБ «Факел» (КА разработки ФГУП «ЦНИИХМ»).

“The tank MVSK84 has undergone a full cycle of ground tests and is currently undergoing flight tests as part of an engine unit developed by OKB Fakel ([on] a satellite/satellites  designed by FGUP TsNIIKhM”).   

The authors use the abbreviation KA (“space apparatus”) for “satellite” and therefore it is not clear if the word is used here in the singular or the plural. They are presumably referring to the Rokot-launched inspectors and/or Cosmos-2521, which was released from Cosmos-2519 in late August 2017, shortly before the paper was given. This excerpt is also significant in that it finally confirms earlier speculation in this thread that TsNIIKhM is indeed a satellite manufacturer/integrator and not just a supplier of subsystems.

Data for the MVSK84 tank are given in the paper and also on the website of NIIMash (see attachment 4):
http://www.niimashspace.ru/files/2016/Topliv_baki.pdf

The paper says the tank can store nitrogen tetroxide, UDMH or hydrazine, but the website mentions only hydrazine, adding that the tank is designed for a monopropellant engine system (and K50-10.6 is exactly such a system). Its mass is “no more than 2.5 kg” and it has a capacity of just over 8 liters.   

A subsequent search on the procurement website zakupki.gov.ru turned up two contracts related to the MVSK84 tank which show that it will be used for two different projects:

http://zakupki.gov.ru/223/purchase/public/purchase/info/common-info.html?regNumber=31400946728

Published in March 2014. It has a draft contract between NIIMash and OAO Kompozit on materials to be used for the production of the MVSK84 tank. The project is not mentioned.

http://zakupki.gov.ru/223/purchase/public/purchase/info/common-info.html?regNumber=31806592757

Published in June 2018.  This has a draft contract between OKB Fakel and NIIMash for the delivery of an MVSK84 tank by 31 October 2018. The project name is given as Nivelir-DU (DU stands for dvigatel’naya ustanovka or “engine unit”).

The documentation released on Nivelir-DU in June 2018 says the contract is based on the following contracts:

30 September 2011 : GNTTs Garant – TsNIIKhM (nr. 102/18/2011)
1 December 2011 : TsNIIKhM – OKB Fakel (nr. 516/11/840-G)

Other contracts identified for Nivelir in the same timeframe are:
21 November 2011 : TsNIIKhM – OKB MEI (for an on-board radio system)
1 December 2011 : TsNIIKhM – NPO Lavochkin
(see earlier posts here)

The documentation published in March 2014 refers back to other contracts:

1 September 2011 : GNTTs Garant – FGUP KBM  (nr. 097/18/2011)
30 September 2011 : FGUP KBM – TsNIIKhM (nr. 804-G)
15 December 2011 : TsNIIKhM – OKB Fakel (nr. 514/1/895-G)
15 December 2011 : OKB Fakel – NIIMash (nr. 20/1-012/014/2011)

The involvement of FGUP KBM suggests that this contract is for Burevestnik, the presumed co-orbital ASAT system.  FGUP KBM (later renamed NPK KBM) (the Design Bureau of Machine Building in Kolomna) is so far not known to have a role in Nivelir, but it did sign contracts for Burevestnik in June 2014 and December 2015 (see the first posts in the Burevestnik thread). There is also plenty of evidence for TsNIIKhM’s involvement in Burevestnik (also see the Burevestnik thread). 

If the March 2014 documentation is indeed about Burevestnik, that would mean that Nivelir and Burevestnik have an identical propellant tank, a strong indication that the two use the same propulsion system and the same bus.  Other procurement documentation published in July 2016 had already shown that  Burevestnik is supposed to carry an engine system of OKB Fakel:

http://zakupki.gov.ru/223/purchase/public/purchase/info/common-info.html?regNumber=31603899262

The contract (for “Burevestnik-KA-M-DU”) is for the delivery of polyimide film to OKB Fakel (probably to protect the satellite structure from the engine’s exhaust products) but does not specify the type of engine. My earlier guess was this was for one of Fakel’s stationary plasma thrusters, but the presence of a hydrazine tank would rule out that idea. Most likely, Burevestnik will use the same thermal catalytic thrusters as Nivelir.  As explained earlier here, a further link between Nivelir and Burevestnik is the construction of a joint ground control facility (1009/5) for the two projects near Russia's space surveillance headquarters in Noginsk-9.



The preliminary conclusion from all this new evidence is that in September 2011 Russia initiated two projects, Nivelir (likely for orbital inspection) and Burevestnik (likely a co-orbital ASAT system). All the satellites were to be built by TsNIIKhM and use a common bus with K50-10.6 thermal catalytic thrusters of OKB Fakel and an MVSK84 hydrazine tank of NIIMash.

Apparently, it was decided to carry out the Nivelir project in two stages. In the first stage, the satellites would fly on the Rokot booster and use the Briz-KM upper stage as a passive target for rendezvous and proximity operations. In the second stage, the target would be a satellite built by NPO Lavochkin. The contract for that phase of the project was signed between TsNIIKhM and NPO Lavochkin on 1 December 2011, with Lavochkin acting as a subcontractor to TsNIIKhM. Documentation related to the NPO Lavochkin satellite uses the production code 14F150 and the name Nivelir-L, where the “L” likely stands for “Lavochkin”. The production code for the TsNIIKhM inspector satellites is probably 14F153, which was used in one official document for Cosmos-2504, the last of the Rokot-launched inspectors. Therefore, Cosmos-2519 would seem to be the first 14F150 satellite and Cosmos-2521 the fourth 14F153 satellite.

Meanwhile, it is now clear that a second mission similar to the current one is being prepared for launch. There is procurement documentation for a satellite called 14F150 N2 and the contract signed between OKB Fakel and NIIMash in 2018 shows that a new TsNIIKhM inspector satellite (which would be 14F153 nr. 5) is also under construction. Most likely, the two will be launched together, possibly on the Soyuz-2-1v that is scheduled for launch later this year. As I explained in Reply 325, one of the objectives for the next mission may be to test a stealthy type of material (developed by NII Ferrit-Domen) that will make the inspector satellite more difficult to spot both visually and by radar.

The biggest mystery of the current mission remains Cosmos-2523, the subsatellite that separated from Cosmos-2521 in October 2017, immediately lowered its perigee by 100 km and then remained inert. The single burn it did may point to the use of a solid-fuel propulsion system. TsNIIKhM is known to have studied small solid-propellant engines for cubesat-sized satellites, but it is questionable if these would be capable of performing such a significant maneuver. Possibly, Cosmos-2523 is the satellite called “Napryazheniye” (“Tension” or “Voltage”) which first appears in Russian documentation in 2012 and is sometimes mentioned along with Nivelir as well as Burevestnik. 

Last August  a  US  official described Cosmos-2523’s behavior as “inconsistent with anything seen before from on-orbit inspection or space situational awareness capabilities” and alluded to the fact that its mission may be related to space weapons development.  That concern may have been sparked in part by the fact that  Cosmos-2523 was separated from Cosmos-2521 when the latter was still orbiting in the immediate vicinity of Cosmos-2519 (the two satellites parted company for several months after that). Possibly, DoD interpreted this as a possible simulated ASAT attack by Cosmos-2523 on Cosmos-2519, even though the maneuver resulted in Cosmos-2523 winding up in an orbit with a much lower perigee.         

Finally, the available procurement documentation shows that the organizational background of these projects is totally different from that of most traditional military space projects, where the Ministry of Defense awards a contract to a prime contractor operating under the wings of Roscosmos.  GNTTs Garant, the organization that awarded the original contracts for both Nivelir and Burevestnik, is a complete mystery. NPK KBM, which seems to play a leading role in Burevestnik,  is a weapon manufacturer that is not known to have worked on space projects earlier. 

TsNIIKhM traces back its history to 1894 and in the Soviet days was a major manufacturer of  ammunition, explosives and solid propellants. Its only known role in the Soviet space program was the delivery of explosive devices for the IS anti-satellite system.  In 2005 TsNIIKhM became subordinate to the Federal Service for Technical and Export Control (FSTEK), a Ministry of Defense agency tasked with protecting state secrets and countering cyber espionage. The institute’s responsibilities were apparently further expanded in 2009, when according to its website it became “the Ministry of Defense’s leading institute for the development of promising weapons including new types of ordnance, rocket propellants and explosive devices” and began carrying out “research in key areas of weapon modernization”. Apparently, that expansion of responsibilities also included a key role in top-secret military space projects for orbital inspection and satellite negation. 

Hidden behind a thick veil of secrecy, TsNIIKhM seems to be evolving into one of Russia’s  most important satellite manufacturers outside the structure of Roscosmos. There is evidence that the company is working on several other secret space projects besides Nivelir and Burevestnik, but I will write about those later.




Title: Re: Kosmos 2519/2521/2523 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: Alter Sachse on 03/24/2019 08:59 am
Time for another Cosmos 2521 manoeuvre.

Dec 18.906    97.886 deg   90.322 minutes   287-293 km   186 deg
Dec 19.601    97.888         90.815               313- 316        163
2019 Mar 17  97.88  deg    90.33  minutes    288-293 km

Is this the satellite to re-enter around May 17 ?
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519/2521/2523 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: Phillip Clark on 04/05/2019 07:01 am
I am still waiting for my second Cosmos 2519 et al article to appear in the BIS Spaceflight magazine - I thought it was coming out in the early-March issue.

Anyway, we have had no activity from Cosmos 2519 or (surprise!) Cosmos 2523 this year.   But Cosmos 2521 has just performed an apogee-raising manoeuvre.

Apr  3.684    97.884 deg   90.169 min     280 - 285 km   178 deg
Apr  4.688    97.885 deg   90.317 min     280 - 300 km   211 deg

I guess that it's a case of "never say die" with these satellites. ;)
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519/2521/2523 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: Phillip Clark on 05/08/2019 07:24 am
Cosmos 2521 refuses to die! ;)   Another manoeuvre to raise the orbit:

May  6.880    97.881 deg   89.915 min   264-276 km   106 deg
May  7.494    97.885         90.101         275-284         222
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519/2521/2523 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: B. Hendrickx on 05/14/2019 02:14 pm
In Reply #330 I presented evidence that all four inspector satellites launched to date (Cosmos-2491, 2499, 2504 (launched as co-passengers on the Rokot launch vehicle in 2013-2015) and Cosmos-2521 (launched attached to Cosmos-2519 in  2017) are likely part of one and the same project (Nivelir) and may use the same bus as the Burevestnik satellites, likely a co-orbital ASAT system. All the satellites are the product of the same manufacturer (the Central Scientific Research Institute of Chemistry and Mechanics (TsNIIKhM or CNIIHM)), they seem to use the same monopropellant propulsion system of OKB Fakel (with K50-10.6 hydrazine thrusters) and have a joint ground control center in Noginsk-9. Moreover, both projects appear to have been initiated in September 2011.

Information from a new source now virtually leaves no doubt that the four inspector satellites are of the same type and lends further support to the idea that Nivelir and Burevestnik share the same bus. The source is a report recently published by PAO Saturn, a manufacturer of solar panels and storage batteries for satellites based in Krasnodar (not to be confused with an identically named company in Omsk, Siberia). 

https://docplayer.ru/124565554-Sostoyanie-kvalifikacii-litiy-ionnyh-batarey-pao-saturn.html

The report, dated February 2019, provides an update on the company’s work on lithium-ion batteries. One of the tables in the report has a list of satellites carrying such batteries and this mentions both Nivelir and Burevestnik in the same row (see attachment 1). Both types of satellites carry a set of lithium-ion batteries called 4LI-20. The acronym “NOO” behind both Nivelir and Burevestnik stands for “low Earth orbit”, meaning that both are designed to operate in LEO. This has some implications for our understanding of the Burevestnik project, which I will write about in the Burevestnik thread. The table also provides the following information on the 4LI-20 batteries:

- design lifetime : 5 years
- number of batteries produced: 12 (6 flight-rated)
- ground tests completed. Flight tests since December 2013. Currently in flight: six batteries on four satellites.

The most likely interpretation of this is that the four satellites are Cosmos-2491, 2499, 2504 and 2521. Cosmos-2491 was launched in December 2013. It is strange, however, that the four satellites carry a total of six batteries, which means that not all of them have the same amount. Possibly, a single battery was flown on the first two missions for testing, after which the next two missions carried a standard set of two batteries.  Another (but less plausible) interpretation is that not all the four satellites mentioned here are identical. One of them could be  Burevestnik or Cosmos-2519, the “parent satellite” produced by NPO Lavochkin (which is also considered part of the Nivelir project). 

The fact that flight tests of the 4LI-20 batteries began on a low-orbiting satellite in December 2013 is also mentioned on PAO Saturn’s website, which also has a picture of the battery (see attachment 2).

http://saturn-kuban.ru/produktsiya/akkumulyatornye-batarei/litiy-ionnye-akkumulyatornye-batarei/

In the table at the bottom of the page the 4LI-20 batteries are said to be intended for remote sensing satellites (“DZZ” in Russian), but the inspector satellites clearly do not perform that role.

More details on the 4LI-20 batteries are given in this 2014 article by specialists of PAO Saturn, which again confirms that flight tests began in December 2013 (without mentioning the name of the satellite). 

http://npp-kvant.ru/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/АЭ-32.docx
(see p. 39-46)

The 4LI-20 batteries were the first lithium-ion batteries ever flown on a Russian low-orbiting satellite (the first such batteries to fly on a Russian satellite were carried by a Glonass navigation satellite launched in 2008). Batteries for low-orbiting satellites have more stringent design requirements because they need to go through many more recharging cycles than batteries flown on satellites in higher orbits.  The individual cells that make up each 4LI-20 battery unit are called LIGP-20 (see table 4 in the article). They have a guaranteed capacity of 22 Ah. The mass of a single LIGP-20 battery cell is given as 0.59 kg.  My understanding of the data is that each 4LI-20 battery is made up of four LIGP-20 cells, giving a total mass of 2.36 kg for the cells combined (but the total battery mass is slightly larger because it also contains other components). In this article the design lifetime of the batteries is given as 5 to 7 years.

The 4LI-20 batteries are also mentioned in an article written in 2016 by a specialist of VNIIEM (a builder of weather and remote sensing satellites). Based on the information from the 2014 PAO Saturn article that test flights of the batteries began in December 2013, the author concluded that they must have been flown on Cosmos-2491, 2499 and 2504.

http://jurnal.vniiem.ru/text/152/20-28.pdf
(see the first table on p. 21)


The February 2019 report also has a list of projects that PAO Saturn is involved in along with the names of their prime contractors (see attachments 3 and 4).  Here Nivelir is mentioned twice: in the list of satellites produced by NPO Lavochkin and in the list of satellites produced by CNIIHM. The satellite mentioned in the Lavochkin list must be the “parent satellite” called Cosmos-2519 (index 14F150) and the one in the CNIIHM list must be the inspector satellite (presumably designated 14F153). 

It is not exactly clear what PAO Saturn’s contribution to 14F150 is. Assuming the 4LI-20 lithium-ion batteries are only flown on 14F153, the only other options are the company’s nickel-hydrogen batteries or solar panels. However, there is evidence that the solar panels for 14F150 are produced by PAO Saturn’s competitor NPP Kvant, Russia’s leading producer of solar panels for satellites (see the 2015 and 2016 annual reports of NPP Kvant).

Nivelir is one of five projects mentioned in the CNIIHM list : Burevestnik-M-AB, Burevestnik-KA-M-AB, Napryazheniye-SB, Nivelir-ASB and Numizmat-AB. The final acronym in the extensions (AB, SB, ASB) refers to the specific payload delivered by PAO Saturn.  “AB’ stands for “storage battery” and “SB” literally stands for “solar battery”, which in Russian means “a collection of solar cells”, which may be installed either on a solar panel or on the satellite body itself. The extension “ASB” seen after Nivelir is an acronym not usually seen in literature related to satellite power supply systems. It could stand for “storage and solar battery” (meaning that PAO Saturn has produced both the solar cells and the storage batteries for Nivelir) or it could simply be a typo.   

The table also confirms that Napryazheniye (“Tension” or “Voltage”) is a satellite produced by CNIIHM. This satellite had been identified before and in some documentation is mentioned alongside Nivelir, which is suggestive of a link between the two (for instance, Nivelir and Napryazheniye were the names of two seemingly related research projects at Moscow’s MFTI university in 2012). Possibly, Napryazheniye is the mysterious satellite called Cosmos-2523 that was separated from Cosmos-2521 in October 2017, immediately lowered its perigee by about 100 km and then remained inert. The information given here would indicate that PAO Saturn has built the “solar batteries” for Napryazheniye. Since this is likely a very small satellite, the term may refer to body-mounted solar cells rather than solar panels.

For some reason Burevestnik is mentioned twice in the CNIIHM list. I will try to explain that in the Burevestnik thread.

Incidentally, the list of projects in which PAO Saturn is involved also includes a satellite called Ekipazh (“Crew”) built by KB Arsenal in St.-Petersburg. Information from other sources indicates that this is a testbed satellite being developed as part of the TEM project to build a 1 megawatt space-based nuclear reactor (initiated by President Dmitriy Medvedev back in 2009). The “777V” and “777S” satellites seen in the list of ISS Reshetnev projects are the Repei-V and Repei-S signals intelligence satellites, intended to operate in highly elliptical and geostationary orbits respectively.  Also included is a "product" called “Stan” involving a company called NPO RIT in Tver, but its purpose is not clear.   
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519/2521/2523 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: B. Hendrickx on 05/21/2019 02:51 pm
As mentioned earlier in this thread, it is likely that we will see more missions like that of Cosmos-2519/2521/2523 involving the 14F150 platform of NPO Lavochkin and subsatellites built by CNIIHM. There is procurement documentation for at least one other 14F150 satellite and one more inspector satellite of CNIIHM (likely designated 14F153). The two companies are known to have signed a contract on 1 December 2011 (nr. 80/0027-I-12/839-G) that likely started their co-operation under the Nivelir project, with NPO Lavochkin acting as a subcontractor to CNIIHM.

Procurement documentation that appeared on the zakupki.gov.ru website in in June 2018 now shows that an additional contract was signed between the two companies on 22 August 2014 (nr. 80/0095-I-14/1129-G), likely also in the framework of Nivelir.

http://zakupki.gov.ru/223/purchase/public/purchase/info/common-info.html?regNumber=31806648622

All that can be inferred from the documentation is that as part of this contract NPO Lavochkin awarded a contract last summer to a company called TTs ZhAIS for the delivery of “measuring equipment” needed for a “product” identified only as 14K245. The index “14K” is usually used to refer to a whole project (satellite, launch vehicle and ground infrastructure). However, since such a designator has already been identified for the Nivelir project (14K167), this one presumably stands for a part of the project (perhaps launch vehicle + satellite(s)?  Anyway, this documentation is yet another sign that more joint Lavochkin/CNIIHM missions can be expected in the coming years. The next mission may be on a Soyuz-2-1V rocket set for launch later this year and for which no payload has been identified yet.

The Soyuz-2-1V is likely to be the booster not only for future Nivelir missions, but also for missions under the Burevestnik project. Both use the same bus and are intended for flights in low Earth orbit, as can be deduced from the PowerPoint presentation of PAO Saturn that I discussed in the previous post (by the way, that presentation still hasn’t been taken offline despite all the fuzz it caused in the Russian media last week). One could even speculate that these projects are the main “raison d’être” for this rocket. Some recent procurement documents show that the Soyuz-2-1V still has a bright future ahead of itself:

http://zakupki.gov.ru/223/purchase/public/purchase/info/documents.html?regNumber=31807337145
(placed online in December 2018)

This documentation mentions a deal between the Progress Rocket and Space Center and PAO Kuznetsov to increase the shelf life of the 14D15 engines by another seven years. The 14D15 engines are refurbished NK-33 engines originally built for the N-1 rocket in 1972-1974.

http://zakupki.gov.ru/223/purchase/public/purchase/info/common-info.html?regNumber=31907502663
http://zakupki.gov.ru/223/purchase/public/purchase/info/common-info.html?regNumber=31907873107
http://zakupki.gov.ru/223/purchase/public/purchase/info/common-info.html?regNumber=31907857088
http://zakupki.gov.ru/223/purchase/public/purchase/info/common-info.html?regNumber=31907892270

(placed online between February and May 2019)

This is documentation for work on the Soyuz-2-1V/Volga infrastructure at the Plesetsk cosmodrome, including reconstruction work inside the processing facility for the Volga upper stage and the construction of clean rooms inside assembly building nr. 101 (likely for payloads to be launched by the Volga). Both are in Area 141 of the cosmodrome (just east of the town of Mirnyy), originally built to support launches by the Cosmos-3M rocket. The work has the code 500-141/E.

 In this respect,it is also worth mentioning a paper by CNIIHM’s Sergei Ulybyshev that was published last year in “Trudy MAI”, a journal of the Moscow Aviation Institute.

http://trudymai.ru/upload/iblock/a20/Ulybyshev_rus.pdf?lang=ru&issue=98

He describes the use of a single Soyuz-2-1V/Volga to place a constellation of eight 100 kg satellites into a 1,200 km Sun-synchronous orbit. The paper focuses on a technique in which the satellites are not directly injected into their final orbit by the Volga upper stage, but are placed into a lower, intermediate orbit and subsequently use their own propulsion systems to reach their operational orbits. This somehow allows the rocket to carry a slightly heavier payload. Although Ulybyshev has published several papers likely related to Nivelir, this one has no obvious connection to the project and may be purely theoretical. It does possibly reflect CNIIHM’s interest in using the Soyuz-2-1V/Volga for other missions.
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519/2521/2523 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: B. Hendrickx on 05/23/2019 08:53 am
One of the things that made it possible to link the Rokot-launched inspector satellites Cosmos-2491, 2499 and 2504 to CNIIHM and the Nivelir project was a list of satellites with engines of OKB Fakel that was published on the OKB Fakel website. This revealed that Cosmos-2499 and 2504 carried thermal catalytic thrusters called K50-10.6 (for some reason Cosmos-2491 was not included). They were the only satellites in the list said to have that particular type of thruster, so when the same thruster was mentioned in a CNIIHM patent related to ground-based thruster test firings, it became possible to link these satellites to CNIIHM (for the details, see Reply 330 in this thread). 

I’ve now noticed that the data for Cosmos-2499 and 2504 on the OKB Fakel website have been changed: they are now listed as having an engine called K50-10, which is a more commonly used type of engine flown on a variety of satellites and therefore looks less “suspicious” than K50-10.6.
https://fakel-russia.com/images/gallery/About/letnaya%20istoriya/KA_s_oborudovaniem.pdf

Moreover, all data for the K50-10.6 thruster have been removed from a fact sheet on the company’s thermal catalytic thrusters.
https://fakel-russia.com/images/gallery/produczia/fakel_tkd_print.pdf

 I’ve attached the old and “doctored” versions of the satellite list and fact sheet for comparison.  CNIIHM was also removed from the list of OKB Fakel partners seen on the homepage, although it is still there on the English-language version of the site (probably an oversight on the part of the site administrators):
 https://fakel-russia.com/index.php/en/

The conclusion is obvious: after the K50-10.6 engine was linked to CNIIHM and Nivelir, OKB Fakel falsified the engine data for Cosmos-2499 and 2504 and erased the information on the K50-10.6 engine from its website (or was ordered to do so). This is “good old” Soviet-style censorship coming back to us. In this case, it is completely pointless because anyone keeping track of this project already has the information. If it shows anything, it is probably that the interpretation of the data was correct.

I also noticed that shortly after that same post appeared here, a link to a 2013 CNIIHM article on inspector satellites suddenly stopped working. The article had been around on the Internet for years, so it looks like this wasn’t coincidental either.  This is probably the price one has to pay for uncovering and publishing this information. It could also lead companies to remove any information that has not yet been uncovered. This may make the search for any information that is still left even more difficult, especially in an environment where the Russians seem to be keeping a much closer eye on the release of sensitive information than they used to (for instance, most companies in the space industry seem to have stopped publishing their annual reports online). The message for sleuths of Russia’s military space program is clear: if you find anything, download the data right away…

 
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519/2521/2523 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: Stan Black on 05/27/2019 09:43 pm
A tender issued by the manufacturer Lavochkin lists a possible second unit; and its cost.
http://www.zakupki.gov.ru/223/purchase/public/purchase/info/documents.html?regNumber=31807390057
https://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=15064.msg1950743#msg1950743

Also there has been a delay with the production of Volga upper stages, №4 and №5?
https://www.sudact.ru/arbitral/doc/7D2YqRtVmLZm/
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519/2521/2523 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: B. Hendrickx on 05/28/2019 08:26 am
A tender issued by the manufacturer Lavochkin lists a possible second unit; and its cost.
http://www.zakupki.gov.ru/223/purchase/public/purchase/info/documents.html?regNumber=31807390057
https://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=15064.msg1950743#msg1950743

Also there has been a delay with the production of Volga upper stages, №4 and №5?
https://www.sudact.ru/arbitral/doc/7D2YqRtVmLZm/

The documentation on zakupki.gov.ru (published in December 2018) deals with insurance for the transportation of NPO Lavochkin satellites and upper stages to launch sites in 2019. The list indeed includes a satellite called 14F150, which was to be transported by rail to Plesetsk in the first quarter of 2019. This must be 14F150 nr. 2, which is mentioned in some procurement documentation related to the delivery of an SGK-5 control moment gyroscope for this satellite. This means that 14F150 nr. 2 likely is the payload for the Soyuz-2-1v/Volga mission that is scheduled for launch later this year. This could also carry one or two subsatellites built by CNIIHM (there is evidence for at least one being prepared for launch), so we may soon see a mission very similar to Cosmos-2519/2521/2523.

The court document (dated August 2018) is indeed about delays in the production of Volga stages nr. 4 and 5 (nr. 4 is the one that is probably supposed to be used for the upcoming Soyuz-2-1v mission). NPO Lavochkin is suing a company called RIRV (Russian Institute of Radio Navigation and Time) for delays in the delivery of navigation devices called 14L328. These were caused by the replacement of foreign-built electronic components by Russian electronic components as a result of the sanctions.         
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519/2521/2523 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: Phillip Clark on 06/03/2019 09:59 am
A bit late because I have been busy withthe British Interplanetary Society's Sino-Russian Technical Forum this weekend.   Cosmos 2521 has manoeuvred again.

May 30.882   97.860 deg   89.789 min   261-268 km   153 deg
May 31.950   97.859         90.159         267-298         257
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519/2521/2523 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: B. Hendrickx on 07/21/2019 09:45 pm
Last year I wrote in this thread about ground control facilities for the Nivelir project (see Reply 313). At the time two had been identified:

-1009/3 : described in procurement documentation as “an information support segment” for both Nivelir and Burevestnik in Noginsk-9 (some 60 km east of Moscow)
-1009/5 : described as a “unified ground station” (OSZ) for Nivelir near Yeniseysk in Siberia (part of a ground control facility known as 46 OKIK or NIP-4)

There was also evidence for a third near Yelizovo in the Kamchatka peninsula:

Quote
One of the other 1009 facilities for Nivelir is likely to be in Yelizovo in the Kamchatka peninsula. A procurement plan of the military construction company Spetsstroi-Engineering published in 2015 referred to buildings for 14K167 in both Yeniseysk and Yelizovo. See a post by Stan Black on the NK forum (the link to the procurement plan no longer works):   

http://novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/forum/forum14/topic14568/?PAGEN_1=8

Quote
Строителство технической позиции под размещение изделия 14К167 г. Енисейск Красноярский край
Строителство технической позиции под размещение изделия 14К167 г. Елизово

Yelizovo (or to be more exact a nearby place called Vulkannyy) is the location of a satellite ground facility known as 65 OKIK or NIP-6, operated by Military Unit 14086.  This also has a history going back to the late 1950s:

https://www.kik-sssr.ru/06_Elizovo.htm

Plans to build ground control infrastructure for Nivelir at the NIP-6 site have now been confirmed in a court document dated 4 December 2018, where it is identified as 1009/4:

 https://sudact.ru/arbitral/doc/WGX3LvSSs6Ve/

The document reveals that a contract (called DS-1009/4) was signed on 10 November 2014 between the Ministry of Defense and the military construction company 31 GPISS for “planning and surveying work” at the facility in support of the 14K167/Nivelir project. More specifically, the company was to study the possibility of adapting two existing buildings (described as “technical buildings 178 and 180”) for use in the Nivelir project and finish the necessary paperwork by November 2015. This work ran into delays when 31 GPISS found that the buildings did not meet the necessary standards for earthquake resistance (Kamchatka is a seismically active region). The Ministry of Defense demanded more than 4 million rubles in damages from 31 GPISS for the delays, but the Moscow court that heard this case denied the claim last December.

It would appear from the document that the paperwork was eventually finished in July 2017 (although this is open to interpretation), but is not clear if the work to adapt these buildings was actually started, let alone if it has been finished.

Presumably, there are at least two other Nivelir ground stations with the codes 1009/1 and 1009/2, but the location of these so far remains unknown. Although there is evidence for only 1009/3 being used to support both Nivelir and Burevestnik,  it is possible that all the 1009 facilities can support the two projects. The Nivelir and Burevestnik satellites seem to use the same bus and are both designed to operate in low Earth orbit. 

The construction of ground control facilities for Nivelir clearly is still an ongoing process. As I mentioned in an earlier post,  ISS Reshetnev announced a tender last December related to what appear to be mobile ground stations for Nivelir (under a theme called Nivelir-MNK-PPPS):

http://zakupki.gov.ru/223/purchase/public/purchase/info/common-info.html?regNumber=31807222813
http://zakupki.gov.ru/223/purchase/public/purchase/info/common-info.html?regNumber=31807227145
 
The 2018 annual report of NPO PM-Razvitiye, a daughter company of ISS Reshetnev, mentions the delivery of antennas for Nivelir ground stations “in seven stages” to be completed by March 2021. The report can be downloaded here:
https://www.e-disclosure.ru/portal/files.aspx?id=19692&type=2
(see p. 14)

If anything, these plans show that Nivelir is a longterm program that will see many more flights in the coming years.
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519/2521/2523 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: B. Hendrickx on 07/22/2019 08:04 am
A correction to my previous post : 1009/3 is the Nivelir ground station near Yeniseysk in Siberia and 1009/5  is the one in Noginsk-9 (both for Nivelir and Burevestnik), not the other way round.
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519/2521/2523 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: Phillip Clark on 08/11/2019 07:27 am
No orbital data have been issued for Cosmos 2523 since August 7.   Not sure whether USSTRATCOM have downgraded the tracking priority of the satellite ...... or could it have been de-orbited?

Aug  7.013   97.803 deg   96.865 min   554 - 663 km   258 deg
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519/2521/2523 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: B. Hendrickx on 08/12/2019 12:19 pm
Some new information on ground infrastructure for Nivelir at the Plesetsk cosmodrome.
Cross-posted from the Burevestnik thread:
https://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=45734.0


Quote
http://zakupki.gov.ru/223/purchase/public/purchase/info/common-info.html?regNumber=31908173944

This documentation (placed online last week) is related to fire safety of buildings at the Plesetsk cosmodrome to be used for “testing elements of projects 14K167, 14K168 and 14K177”. 14K167 and 14K168 are the program designators for Nivelir and Burevestnik. No project name has yet been linked to 14K177. So far this designator has appeared in only one source, namely a 2016 issue of a local Plesetsk newspaper, where it is mentioned as one of several projects to be discussed during environmental impact hearings (along with another unidentified project carrying the index 14K180):

http://www.pleseck.ru/kp/arh/2016/2016082434(925).pdf

The new documentation reveals that the buildings to be used in support of the three projects are building 201 in Area 141 and building 130 in Area 32T.  Area 141 is situated just northeast of the town of Mirnyy and is the location of the assembly building for the now retired Kosmos-3M rocket (building 101), one function of which now is to process the Volga upper stage. I’ve attached a context image showing the location of Area 141 with respect to Mirnyy and a close-up of the area, where I have marked what is presumably building 201 (based on other sources).  As is known from other sources, this is a satellite processing facility used also for at least one other project, namely the 14K032 Tundra missile early warning program.

Area 32T, situated some 30 km northeast of Mirnyy, was originally built in the 1960s to support launches of the R-9 missile and was later turned into the processing area for the Tsiklon-3 rocket. Building 130, the former assembly building of the Tsiklon-3, is now used to prepare the Rokot launch vehicle and its payloads. I don’t think this necessarily means that future payloads for the 14K167, 14K168 and 14K177 programs will be launched by the Rokot (few of the rockets are left anyway). Attached are a context image, a close-up where Building 130 is marked and a picture of Building 130 taken from the ground.

All this infrastructure is referred to in the documentation as “Object 7511/OKR”. “OKR” is an acronym that usually stands for “experimental design work”. The 7511 index until now had only been seen for infrastructure linked to Burevestnik, namely 7511/3 (situated at a rocket storage facility near Pervomaiskoye in the Tambov province)  and 7511/4 (situated at Plesetsk) (see earlier posts in this thread).
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519/2521/2523 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: Phillip Clark on 08/13/2019 06:42 am
Following on from my August 11th post, orbital data for Cosmos 2523 once more started to be issued later on August 11th: no manoeuvres.
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519/2521/2523 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: Alter Sachse on 08/13/2019 07:07 am
Kosmos 2523 has never changed its orbit (as far as I know).
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519/2521/2523 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: Phillip Clark on 08/13/2019 08:41 am
Kosmos 2523 has never changed its orbit (as far as I know).

Apart from immediately after separation from Cosmos 2521.   I made the "no manoeuvre" comment because an unexpected manoeuvre could have explained why it had no TLEs issues for a few days.
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519/2521/2523 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: B. Hendrickx on 08/23/2019 10:23 pm
Cross-posted from the Burevestnik thread:

https://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=45734.20

Quote
More documentation has appeared on Russia's government procurement website for infrastructure with the code name 7511/OKR at the Plesetsk cosmodrome. As explained in Reply 17 in this thread, this is infrastructure for projects 14K167 (Nivelir), 14K168 (Burevestnik) and 14K177 (unknown, although one possible candidate is Numizmat, another project run by CNIIHM):

http://zakupki.gov.ru/223/purchase/public/purchase/info/common-info.html?regNumber=31908195888

The earlier documentation dealt with fire safety of 7511/OKR infrastructure and identified building 201 in Area 141 and building 130 in Area 32T as being part of this infrastructure. The new documentation is a tender for the design of clean rooms for these projects, more particularly in building 130 in Area 32T. As mentioned in Reply 17 , this is the former assembly building of the Tsiklon-3 rocket and it is now used for assembly of the Rokot launch vehicle and processing of its payloads (incidentally, hardware for the ground-based Nudol ASAT project was spotted earlier this year in satellite images of the former Tsiklon-3 launch pads, located in the same area).

Building 130 already has a clean room bay, which comprises an airlock, an upper composite integration area (where the Briz-KM upper stage is mated with its payload) and a satellite processing area. More details in this 2011 Eurockot user guide:

http://www.eurockot.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/UsersGuideIss5Rev0web.pdf
(see pages 10-9 to 10-15)

Several pictures of the clean room bay are here, including the one in attachment 1 (the white structure behind the train):
https://www.kik-sssr.ru/Plesetsk_TC_Rocot.htm

It is not entirely clear if the tender is for a new clean room bay or the adaptation of the existing one (the latter would seem more likely). There are two deadlines for finishing the design documentation, one in July 2020 and another in June 2021 (so the tender is not yet for actual construction work).

 The new documentation also shows that another element of 7511/OKR is building 5 in Area 141 (very close to the town of Mirnyy). This was also briefly mentioned in the fire safety documentation for 7511/OKR along with another structure in Area 141 called "Lovushka" (a word meaning "trap"). Building 5 probably is a satellite processing facility located in between satellite processing building 201 and building 101 (the former Kosmos-3M assembly building, now used for processing the Volga upper stages). It is marked in the attached Google Earth picture (attachment 2) and can also be seen in an aerial shot of Area 141 (attachment 3) taken from this website:

https://www.kik-sssr.ru/Plesetsk_TC_Kosmos.htm

The assembly building in the foreground (also clearly seen in the upper right corner of the Google Earth picture) is said to be the biggest at Plesetsk, but it was never finished and nobody seems to know what it was to be used for. Behind it in a row from left to right are building 101, the presumed building 5 and building 201. The same website also has a picture of what is probably building 5 taken from the ground (attachment 4).

So it would seem that payload processing for Nivelir, Burevestnik and 14K177 is going to take place in two different areas of the cosmodrome separated by more than 30 km. The use of buildings adjacent to the Volga processing building in Area 141 makes sense, because the Soyuz-2-1v/Volga is likely to become the main launch vehicle for these projects. The use of the Rokot assembly building in Area 32T would seem to point to the intended use of the Rokot. The first three Nivelir satellites (Kosmos-2491, 2499 and 2504) were indeed launched by Rokot in 2013-2015, but the rocket is being phased out. There are plans for Rokot-2 with an all-Russian flight control system (replacing the Ukrainian-built flight control system), but financing of this project seems far from certain. A more likely explanation for the use of building 130 is that it has specific hardware not available in Area 141 (possibly, the clean room bay).

At any rate, these latest construction plans are yet another indication that Russia fully intends to turn Nivelir and Burevestnik into operational systems.   
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519/2521/2523 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: B. Hendrickx on 08/31/2019 08:42 pm
For some reason TASS today provided an update on maneuvers performed in recent months by Kosmos-2521 (using US tracking data):

https://tass.com/science/1075876

Quote
MOSCOW, August 31. /TASS/. Russian military spacecraft Kosmos-2521, unofficially nicknamed the satellite inspector, has performed several new maneuvers since the beginning of 2019, the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) said in a statement.

According to NORAD, in January 2019 the satellite was in near-Earth orbit with parameters of 280 km per 285 km. In early February, the orbit of the spacecraft began to decrease gradually and by April 10 its minimum altitude was 227 km. Then the satellite was once again raised - in early June, it had an orbit of 247 for 282 km.

Now, the satellite has descended again, according to NORAD. The flight path of Kosmos-2521 around the Earth moves so that during the day it more than 10 times flies over different parts of North America.

Kosmos-2521 satellite, capable of performing tens of hundreds of kilometers of orbital maneuvers, according to a number of specialized resources, was launched on June 23, 2017 from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome. The satellite began to perform regular maneuvers in space starting from October 2017.
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519/2521/2523 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: B. Hendrickx on 08/31/2019 08:56 pm
To be more exact, TASS is referring to a statement from NORAD, but where was that published?
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519/2521/2523 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: Steven Pietrobon on 09/01/2019 08:51 am
Can't find it on the NORAD website.

https://www.norad.mil/Newsroom/Press-Releases/
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519/2521/2523 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: Phillip Clark on 09/13/2019 10:39 am
Cosmos 2521 decayed from orbit late on September 11/early on September 12.   The last TLE had epoch Sep 11.880 and Space-Track is giving what appears to be a default re-entry time of 00:00 UT on September 12.
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519/2521/2523 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: Alter Sachse on 09/13/2019 10:58 am
What were the last orbital elements ?
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519/2521/2523 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: Phillip Clark on 09/13/2019 03:24 pm
The last four TLE sets are:

1 42919U 17037D   19253.53716751  .02088562  27818-5  29909-3 0    02
2 42919  97.8312  44.9971 0007994 275.1729  85.0009 16.34776357115966
1 42919U 17037D   19253.72073999 +.02505931 +27867-5 +31939-3 0    07
2 42919 097.8324 045.2205 0008056 280.7985 079.4402 16.35885384115998
1 42919U 17037D   19254.57561943  .05126568  28304-5  25478-3 0    08
2 42919  97.8270  46.2726 0007596 267.4777  92.6006 16.42317609116138
1 42919U 17037D   19254.87988005 +.07163561 +28611-5 +13971-3 0    05
2 42919 097.8270 046.6515 0009430 266.2166 093.9210 16.46726261116184

The final set corresponds with the orbit:
Sep 11.880    97.827 deg   87.446 min   142 - 154 km   266 deg
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519/2521/2523 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: Alter Sachse on 09/13/2019 03:49 pm
https://twitter.com/jremis/status/1172048470087278592
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519/2521/2523 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: Alter Sachse on 09/13/2019 03:53 pm
Also TASS reports about the end of the satellite.

https://tass.ru/kosmos/6882787
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519/2521/2523 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: B. Hendrickx on 10/25/2019 02:52 pm
Cross-posted from the Burevestnik thread:

https://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=45734.20

Quote
A few rare documents related to Burevestnik and Nivelir have appeared on the website of RNII Elektronstandart, a company that (among other things) performs acceptance testing of electronic components for Russian satellites. They only show up via a Google search and not when looking for them via the homepage of the website. Most likely, they are not intended for public consumption and have ended up online by accident.

The Burevestnik documents (dated 15 May 2012) are here:

http://www.icrniies.ru/files/examples/3/example2.pdf
http://www.icrniies.ru/files/examples/3/example3.pdf

These are actually identical documents, but in the first version some details have been erased,  such as the names of the project and the prime contractor (the Central Scientific Research Insitute of Chemistry and Mechanics (ЦНИИХМ or CNIIHM)). The name of the CNIIHM representative who signed the document has been blotted out in both versions of the document.

The Nivelir documents are here:

http://www.icrniies.ru/files/examples/3/example6.pdf
(dated 20 November 2012)
http://www.icrniies.ru/files/examples/3/example7.pdf
(dated 5 December 2012)

As in the Burevestnik document, the name of the CNIIHM signee has been made invisible here.

The documents deal with the testing of foreign-built electronic components for Burevestnik and Nivelir under themes called Burevestnik-M-E and Nivelir-ERI. They show that CNIIHM and RNII Elektronstandart signed contracts for this work on the same day, namely on 16 April 2012, which again is indicative of the close ties between the two projects. Both Burevestnik and Nivelir seem to have been started in September 2011 and share at least some components such as the propulsion system and batteries.

Burevestnik-M-E and Nivelir-ERI are also mentioned in RNII Elektronstandart’s annual reports for 2012, 2013 and 2014 along with a theme called Napryazheniye-E (Napryazheniye is another secret CNIIHM satellite).  The name “Burevestnik-KA-M-EKB” appears in the 2016 annual report. As is known from procurement documentation, the contract for this work was signed between CNIIHM and RNII Elektronstandart on 1 April 2016. Beginning with the 2017 annual report, project names are no longer given.

The abbreviations “E”, “ERI” and “EKB” seen in these contract names refer to testing of electronic components. Burevestnik-M and Burevestnik-KA-M seem to be the names of two different satellites being developed under Burevestnik (possibly target and interceptor), as became clear from a presentation by solar panel/battery manufacturer PAO Saturn earlier this year.  The Elektronstandart documents as well as a few others suggest that Burevestnik-M was developed first and Burevestnik-KA-M came along later.
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519/2521/2523 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: B. Hendrickx on 02/11/2020 10:39 pm
While expressing concern over the close approaches of Kosmos-2542 and 2543 to USA-245, the commander of the US Space Force John Raymond also referred to the Kosmos-2519/2521/2523 mission:

https://time.com/5779315/russian-spacecraft-spy-satellite-space-force/

Quote
Raymond says he’s concerned because Russia is demonstrating capabilities the U.S. first saw three years ago, when Moscow tested the “Russian nesting doll” technology. “In 2017, they launched a satellite, it launched another satellite,” he says. “The satellites exhibited characteristics of a weapon system when one of those satellites launched a high-speed projectile into space.”

While Raymond’s allegation couldn’t be verified, the U.S. did raise the issue in 2018, warning about Russia’s “very troubling” behavior at the U.N.’s Conference on Disarmament that year without providing specifics.

The "high-speed projectile" that Raymond mentions is Kosmos-2523, the satellite that was deployed from Kosmos-2521 while the latter performed proximity operations with Kosmos-2519 in late October 2017. Although the Russians officially described it as an inspection satellite, it performed a burn that lowered its perigee by about 100 km shortly after its release from Kosmos-2521 and never came in the vicinity of another satellite. In August 2018 US Assistant Secretary of State for Arms Control, Verification and Compliance, Yleem D.S. Poblete, already hinted at the possibility that it might be some kind of space weapon while addressing the UN Conference on Disarmament. Now Raymond confirms that the deployment of Kosmos-2523 is interpreted by US intelligence analysts as some kind of ASAT test.

Kosmos-2542 and 2543 are likely of the same type as Kosmos-2519 and 2521. So far Kosmos-2543 has not yet deployed a subsatellite like Kosmos-2523, but that may still happen.
Title: Re: Kosmos 2519/2521/2523 - Soyuz-2.1v/Volga - Plesetsk - June 23, 2017
Post by: B. Hendrickx on 12/24/2021 10:39 am
Kosmos-2519, the first 14F150 satellite (part of the Nivelir program), has re-entered.

https://tass.com/science/1380133

Quote
MOSCOW, December 23. /TASS/. Russia’s Kosmos-2519 military satellite, which previously operated with an inspector spacecraft, has burned in the atmosphere, according to the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) data, published Thursday.

According to NORAD, the satellite decayed from orbit and no longer exists.

The Kosmos-2519 satellite was launched from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome on June 23, 2017. The satellite is a space platform that can carry various payloads. This spacecraft carried remote Earth sensing and space object filming equipment.

In October 2017, the Russian Defense Ministry reported that an inspector satellite had separated from the spacecraft as a part of an experiment. The inspector spacecraft was able to examine the host satellite’s condition from a minimum distance. The information was then sent to Earth for analysis.

The inspector spacecraft burned in the atmosphere in September 2019.