Soyuz-2.1b - Pion-NKS №1 - Plesetsk 43/4 - 25 June 2021 - 19:50 UTC

[Stan Black]

14К160
Payload: Pion-NKS 14Ф139 № 901 (part of Liana)
Rocket: Soyuz-2-1B 14А14-1Б
Launch site: Plesetsk 17П32-С4 (ПУ № 43/4)
Fairing: 14С741
Manufacturer: Machine-Building Plant Arsenal (prime), Rocket & Space Centre Progress (orbital module)
Mass: 6,500 kilogrammes
Orbit: 500 kilometres, 67° inclination

Picture here:-
http://www.kbarsenal.ru/images/plakat/cosmos/31.jpg
***

zubenelgenubi edit: As a payload for the Russian Ministry of Defence, the satellite will receive a Kosmos designation upon successful launch.

[Stan Black]

Tender issued for insurance to cover transportation of the orbital module from RKTs-Progress in Samara to MZ Arsenal in Saint Petersburg.

http://www.zakupki.gov.ru/223/purchase/public/purchase/info/common-info.html?noticeId=2005623

Direct link to document:-
http://www.zakupki.gov.ru/223/purchase/public/download/download.html?id=11277218

The value of the orbital module is 1,133,872,692·47 Russian ruble, manufactured under contract №01078/2953-1 dated 30th November 2007.

[Stan Black]

I have the plan for all the Soyuz launches from Baikonur and Plesetsk for the next two years :
XX.12.2015 - Soyuz-2.1b - Plesetsk 43/4 - Pion n°901

[Phillip Clark]

Just been playing with some numbers for a 67 deg inclination, ~500 km orbit.   You get a 15 circuit repeater when the period is 94.94 minutes, circular orbit altitude 516 km.

[Stan Black]

Notice in Anik’s serial numbers 77069203/38М136С listed under fairing 14С741. So is that the serial number of the rocket too?
http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=36777.msg1493825#msg1493825

[Phillip Clark]

I hesitate to ask if we have an approximate launch schedule yet?   Supposed to be the end of 2015, but silence.

[Stan Black]

One option would be the Pion NKS satellite.

http://www.russianspaceweb.com/liana.html
(at the end of the article)

http://space.skyrocket.de/doc_sdat/pion-nks.htm

According to posts by a KB Arsenal insider on the NK forum, Pion NKS is unlikely to fly any time soon. The bus is apparently ready, but the spacecraft has been waiting for its SIGINT payload for four years. The payload is to be delivered by TsNIRTI, which has developed all SIGINT payloads since the 1960s.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Defense has signed a contract with Arsenal to build a modified version of Lotos-S called Lotos-M. According to the same insider this will basically be a Lotos-S without Western-built electronic components (because of the sanctions). However, Lotos-M so far only exists on paper, so it can't be the payload for the October launch either. I've also seen no indications that a third Lotos-S is being prepared for launch.

[zubenelgenubi]

Update from the thread Plan of Russian Space Launches (part 2):

Launch scheduled for late 2019.

[zubenelgenubi]

Cross-post:

Will there be any more orbital launches, other than 1 Proton and the last Rokot, before the New Year's and Russian Orthodox Christmas holidays?

Rogozin said 3 launches including launch from CSG obviously.

[B. Hendrickx]

Pion-NKS may have to be ruled out as a candidate for the late January Plesetsk launch. In late November information appeared on Russia's government procurement website about a contract to replace pyrotechnic devices aboard the satellite (referred to as 14F139 nr. 901). It's not quite clear though from the documentation if this work has already been finished or still needs to be done.

https://zakupki.gov.ru/223/purchase/public/purchase/info/common-info.html?regNumber=31908565677

[zubenelgenubi]

Cross-post:

Pion-NKS №901 - 02.02.2021

An interesting development!
If the launch is successful, this satellite should become Kosmos 2549.

[Alter Sachse]

2 февраля - Космос (14Ф139 Пион-НКС №901) - Союз-2-1Б - Плесецк 43/?

Februry 2 Kosmos 14F139 Pion NKS No. 901 - Soyuz 2-1B Plesetsk 43/?

https://forum.novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/index.php?topic=16307.msg2117280#msg2117280

[Alter Sachse]

Notice in Anik’s serial numbers 77069203/38М136С listed under fairing 14С741. So is that the serial number of the rocket too?
http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=36777.msg1493825#msg1493825

This Soyuz was used in the meantime for Kosmos 2524 (Lotos 3).

[B. Hendrickx]

The source for this information appears to be a Plesetsk insider who posted on the NK forum yesterday that something is going to be launched from Plesetsk on February 2. He didn't give the name of the payload, saying only that it's "like a flower". "Pion" is the Russian word for a flower called "peony" and that apparently led to the conclusion that the payload must be Pion-NKS. He may also have been referring to the satellite's radar antennas, which look a bit like flowers. Anyway, it's an interesting scamgraphic way of revealing the nature of a military payload. 

Incidentally, Pion's sister satellite Lotos-S is also named after a flower ("lotus") (and "Liana", the overall project name, refers to the woody climbing plants that hang from trees). However, there doesn't seem to be another Lotos-S planned for the near future and Defense Minister Shoigu said last March that Pion-NKS was getting close to launch. This satellite has been grounded for many years due to technical issues, some of them most likely having to do with the Western sanctions that have hampered the import of electronic components.   

[Stan Black]

Notice in Anik’s serial numbers 77069203/38М136С listed under fairing 14С741. So is that the serial number of the rocket too?
http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=36777.msg1493825#msg1493825

This Soyuz was used in the meantime for Kosmos 2524 (Lotos 3).

There is also fairing 14С741 15/133, so that was probably the original rocket.

[B. Hendrickx]

Responding to speculation that the payload is Pion-NKS, the Plesetsk insider is now saying on the NK forum that "they're training with another flower, one that's already been [flown]". That most likely means the payload is a Lotos-S1 ELINT satellite. Lotos (also named after a flower) uses the same bus as Pion-NKS, so what he probably means is that flying Lotos is a good dress rehearsal for flying Pion-NKS.

So far four Lotos satellites have been launched (serial nrs. 801, 802, 803, 804). A fifth satellite (14F145 nr. 805) is mentioned in some court documentation. It was ordered together with nr. 804 under a contract signed between the Ministry of Defense and the Arsenal Machine Building Factory on September 1, 2014. See for instance here:

https://kad.arbitr.ru/Document/Pdf/1ef5359a-af16-4f69-97e5-af41225bae90/3d30fa30-3f77-4cfc-bac3-ce75810d9d68/A56-99136-2019_20200228_Reshenie.pdf?isAddStamp=True

It looks very much like this is the satellite that will be going up next week.

Meanwhile, TASS has confirmed the February 2 launch date, adding that February 3 is the back-up launch date:
https://tass.ru/kosmos/10570665

[zubenelgenubi]

Lotos-S No. 5 = Lotos-S1 No. 4 launch thread

[B. Hendrickx]

Documentation published in the middle of last year shows that environmental testing of Pion-NKS's radar system was still to be completed at that time.

https://zakupki.gov.ru/223/contract/public/contract/view/general-information.html?style44=false&id=9771601

The radar system (designated 11V521) is provided by the Vega Concern in Moscow and has been under development since early this century. It seems to have been primarily responsible for the seemingly endless delays that Pion-NKS has suffered. Last May, Vega signed a contract for environmental testing of the radar with NPO Mashinostroyeniya (NPOMash, the former Chelomei design bureau) in Reutov outside Moscow. NPOMash has no direct involvement in Pion, but it has a big thermal vacuum chamber where these tests can be conducted. Presumably, the same chamber is used for environmental testing of the radars used by NPOMash's own Kondor satellites (these radars are also built by Vega).

The environmental tests of the Pion-NKS radar were supposed to take about two months, so they were probably finished no earlier than last summer, after which the radar needed to be shipped to the satellite manufacturer in St.-Petersburg for  integration with the satellite. The satellite is manufactured by the Arsenal Machine Building Factory (MZ Arsenal), the production facility aligned with the KB Arsenal design bureau. MZ Arsenal also integrates the Lotos-S1 satellites, which use the same bus as Pion-NKS. The bus in turn is provided by the Progress Rocket and Space Center in Samara. It is essentially the same bus that Progress used for its Resurs-DK remote sensing satellite.     

All this could suggest that the launch of Pion-NKS is still some way off, but there is at least one indication that this may not the case.  Last December, KB Arsenal signed a contract with a transportation company for transportation services at Plesetsk that seem to be related to this launch:

https://zakupki.gov.ru/223/contract/public/contract/view/general-information.html?style44=false&id=10408862

Pion-NKS is not mentioned by name in the documentation, but it refers back to the 1993 government contract that started the Liana project and one of the files is named "product 901" ("901" is the serial number of Pion-NKS). No specific dates are mentioned for the transportation services, but one can assume KB Arsenal wouldn't be signing such a contract if they weren't needed in the following weeks or months.

[zubenelgenubi]

Cross-post:

https://iz.ru/1133265/anton-lavrov/dotianulas-do-kosmosa-zavershaetsia-sozdanie-sistemy-razvedki-liana
Google translate:

This year we can expect the launch of the first Pion-NKS satellite. It is already undergoing ground tests.

Where would these ground tests occur?

[B. Hendrickx]

Cross-post:

https://iz.ru/1133265/anton-lavrov/dotianulas-do-kosmosa-zavershaetsia-sozdanie-sistemy-razvedki-liana
Google translate:

This year we can expect the launch of the first Pion-NKS satellite. It is already undergoing ground tests.

Where would these ground tests occur?

Either Pion-NKS is still at the manufacturer (the Arsenal Machine Building Factory in St.-Petersburg) or it has been shipped to Plesetsk. See the previous post for the latest available information.

The only new information in the Izvestia article quoted here is that according to the newspaper's sources in the Ministry of Defense the deployment of the Liana constellation and "several other of its elements" (presumably ground-based systems) is expected to be completed this year. Some inaccuracies in it as well, such as the claim that all five Lotos satellites launched so far are still operational (in reality two or three at best).

Actually, it is doubtful that Liana will ever be fully completed. The full constellation was supposed to consist of two operational Lotos and two operational Pion satellites, but there are no indications from available procurement and court documentation that a second Pion satellite is even under construction. On the other hand, four more Lotos satellites were ordered in 2017 and we can expect to see those appear in orbit in the coming years.