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International Space Flight (ESA, Russia, China and others) => Russian Launchers - Soyuz, Progress and Uncrewed => Topic started by: William Graham on 12/02/2008 06:52 am

Title: Molniya-M/Oko - 2 December 2008
Post by: William Graham on 12/02/2008 06:52 am: Launch was at 05:00 GMT (08:00 MSK), from Plesetsk.
http://www.itar-tass.com/eng/level2.html?NewsID=13331590&PageNum=0

Now it is in orbit, the satellite should receive the designation Kosmos-2446.

I was under the impression that the Molniya-M was retired last year. Can we expect any more of these 'surprises'?
Title: Re: Molniya-M/Oko - 2 December 2008
Post by: William Graham on 12/02/2008 09:57 am: Some more information (in Russian)
http://www.rian.ru/science/20081202/156276825.html

Looks like the launch was from site 16/2, and occurred at 05:03 GMT, not 05:00 as previously reported.
Title: Re: Molniya-M/Oko - 2 December 2008
Post by: VB94 on 12/02/2008 01:02 pm: Some pictures of this launch are posted here:
http://www.mil.ru/info/1069/details/index.shtml?id=55261
Title: Re: Molniya-M/Oko - 2 December 2008
Post by: Slava33 on 12/03/2008 04:06 am: Russian military deployed an Oko-class military surveillance satellite officially designated Kosmos 2446 today from Plesetsk Cosmodrome on top of (one of the last?) Molniya-M launcher into a Molniya orbit:
http://www.spaceflightnow.com/news/n0812/02kosmos/

Plesetsk will have become the only Russian military launch site when the last Space Force personnel pull out on Jan 1:
http://nvo.ng.ru/forces/2008-09-26/5_Baikonur.html (in Russian)
http://en.rian.ru/video/20081201/118633024.html

There are also plans to move some civilian launches to the planned Vostochniy Cosmodrome (construction to start in 2010) in Siberia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vostochny_Cosmodrome

So, will Baikonur become just another dilapidated remains of former Soviet glory? Not in the short term, it seems. In fact, it may reap some benefits of no Russian military oversight in the future.

(Russia deploys military surveillance "Kosmos 2446" thread moved into this thread - anik)
Title: Re: Molniya-M/Oko - 2 December 2008
Post by: pm1823 on 12/03/2008 07:27 pm: Quote
I was under the impression that the Molniya-M was retired last year. Can we expect any more of these 'surprises'?

Yes, at least one. I think it will be same SC "Oko"-type in dec. 2009.
Title: Re: Molniya-M/Oko - 2 December 2008
Post by: Nicolas PILLET on 12/04/2008 03:26 pm: Quote from: GW_Simulations on 12/02/2008 09:57 am
Looks like the launch was from site 16/2, and occurred at 05:03 GMT, not 05:00 as previously reported.

According to this press release, the launch did occure at 05:00.

05:03 is the time by which the launcher came into visibility of Titov Space Center.
Title: Re: Molniya-M/Oko - 2 December 2008
Post by: Nicolas PILLET on 12/04/2008 03:35 pm: Some news about Cosmos 2379 ? It wen to free drift in august 2007, but at the time we didn't know what it meant...