Angara-1.2 - Kosmos 2555 (EO MKA#2) - Plesetsk - 29 April 2022 (19:55 UTC)

[zubenelgenubi]

This potentially strategically important test launch is coming up in less than 90 minutes.

How is this strategically important?

A possible explanation is that we’re about to witness a test flight of the air-launched Burevestnik ASAT interceptor.

[asmi]

A possible explanation is that we’re about to witness a test flight of the air-launched Burevestnik ASAT interceptor.

Air-launched from the ground?

[zubenelgenubi]

A possible explanation is that we’re about to witness a test flight of the air-launched Burevestnik ASAT interceptor.

Air-launched from the ground?

The ASAT is carried aloft by the specially modified aircraft, then fired at the space target.

Air-to-space anti-satellite weapon.

The potential target is launched from the ground.

This launch campaign is something of a combined operation.

Please read Bart Hendrickx's numerous posts on this topic in the Russian space section, including up-thread. 

[Satori]

Do we know if this was a 24 hour scrub?

[russianhalo117]

Do we know if this was a 24 hour scrub?

The other set of NOTAM's last I checked was still valid for May 1-22. MoD has priority for missile testing and operational missile exercises.

[B. Hendrickx]

The ASAT is carried aloft by the specially modified aircraft, then fired at the space target. Air-to-space anti-satellite weapon.
The potential target is launched from the ground. This launch campaign is something of a combined operation.

Note that the combined operation is no more than speculation on my part. It's a possible way of explaining the NOTAMs that refer to a "missile and aircraft launching" and have coordinates for two impact zones in the Barents Sea whereas only would be expected to be needed for the Angara launch alone. But I may very well be reading too much into those NOTAMs.

The payload for the Angara launch remains a mystery and we're not likely to get any clues until after launch. It's not clear where the name MKA-R comes from. Last November a person writing on the NK forum (apparently a Khrunichev insider) said it was "MKA", which actually is just a Russian abbreviation for "small satellite" and doesn't really sound like a satellite name. Shortly after that, the name MKA-R suddenly popped up in NK's Russian launch schedule, without any source for that being given.

There is a satellite named MKA-R on the website of Gazprom:
https://www.gazprom-spka.ru/ru/kosmicheskie-apparaty/kosmicheskie-apparaty-dzz/mka/
(see the attachment)
It's a series of six small radar satellites ("R" stands for "radar") to monitor the Northern Sea Route. However, according to the website the first launch is set for no earlier than 2014. Moreover, the secrecy surrounding this launch makes it highly unlikely that it carries this civilian payload.

The launch azimuth that can be derived from the NOTAMs does point to a Sun-synchronous orbit and, hence, a possible remote sensing mission. Potential candidates are Razbeg (a new type of optical reconnaissance satellite) and the secretive remote sensing satellite that Russia has built for Iran (which early last year was expected to fly in the second quarter of 2021). Both of these are products of VNIIEM and may share the same platform.

The question is if the Russians will risk launching such a new payload on the first test flight of Angara-1.2. Let's not forget that they flew the first two Angara-A5 missions with dummy payloads. An ASAT target might be seen as a compromise between a dummy payload and a fully functional satellite. We know that two types of satellites have been developed under Burevestnik, namely Burevestnik-M and Burevestnik-KA-M. One could be a target and the other an interceptor ("M" may stand for "mishen", the Russian word for "target"). However, launching the target and the interceptor within the announced one-hour window would be quite challenging. Moreover, there may be political obstacles to performing a second ASAT test just months after last November's Nudol test and with new talks on banning space weapons getting underway in the UN shortly. So let's just wait and see what happens.

[asmi]

Note that the combined operation is no more than speculation on my part. It's a possible way of explaining the NOTAMs that refer to a "missile and aircraft launching" and have coordinates for two impact zones in the Barents Sea whereas only would be expected to be needed for the Angara launch alone. But I may very well be reading too much into those NOTAMs.

It could be just a relay aircraft to acquire telemetry once the vehicle goes beyond the horizon. Though I'm not really sure that they would risk flying a manned aircraft along the path of a launch vehicle which was only launched once, and even then that was a suborbital launch.
But then again, why would one need a NOTAM to fly an aircraft?

[zubenelgenubi]

Thanks, Bart.

As one can read, we both qualified our statements (possible, potential).

A possible explanation is that we’re about to witness a test flight of the air-launched Burevestnik ASAT interceptor.

This potentially strategically important test launch is coming up in less than 90 minutes.

[B. Hendrickx]

What appears to be an inside source writes on the NK forum that the launch has been rescheduled for today and that the payload will be inserted into a nearly circular Sun-synchronous orbit at an altitude of about 300 km.

[Alter Sachse]

What appears to be an inside source writes on the NK forum that the launch has been rescheduled for today and that the payload will be inserted into a nearly circular Sun-synchronous orbit at an altitude of about 300 km.

That suggests an optical reconnaissance satellite rather than a radar satellite.

[asmi]

That suggests an optical reconnaissance satellite rather than a radar satellite.

Why? Radar doesn't require uninterrupted power (the primary reason for sun-sync orbit)?

[Galactic Penguin SST]

That suggests an optical reconnaissance satellite rather than a radar satellite.

Why? Radar doesn't require uninterrupted power (the primary reason for sun-sync orbit)?

Actually I was thinking about the ASAT theory and, unfortunately, it still has a chance. The Indian satellite Microsat-R, launched in January 2019 and then was destroyed 2 months later, was launched into a 275 km high SSO.

[Alter Sachse]

That suggests an optical reconnaissance satellite rather than a radar satellite.

Why? Radar doesn't require uninterrupted power (the primary reason for sun-sync orbit)?

Radar satellites usually have a higher orbit.

[B. Hendrickx]

Some more details emerging from this same insider on the NK forum. He claims the payload was produced by the same manufacturer as Kosmos-2551 and also has about the same mass, so this should be EMKA nr. 3. Kosmos-2551 and its predecessor Kosmos-2525 were also placed into roughly 300 km orbits. I understand from his posts that the launch was originally planned for last fall (presumably delayed because of the failure of Kosmos-2551) and that yet another satellite of this type is supposed to be launched next fall. He also says the payload will be released about 20 minutes after launch, adding "everything will sink after three hours" (I suppose he's referring to the AM stage).

[B. Hendrickx]

Liftoff confirmed.

[B. Hendrickx]

Exact liftoff time 19.55.22.612 UTC

[B. Hendrickx]

First two stages have done their job. AM has been ignited.

[Alter Sachse]

Some more details emerging from this same insider on the NK forum. He claims the payload was produced by the same manufacturer as Kosmos-2551 and also has about the same mass, so this should be EMKA nr. 3. Kosmos-2551 and its predecessor Kosmos-2525 were also placed into roughly 300 km orbits. I understand from his posts that the launch was originally planned for last fall (presumably delayed because of the failure of Kosmos-2551) and that yet another satellite of this type is supposed to be launched next fall. He also says the payload will be released about 20 minutes after launch, adding "everything will sink after three hours" (I suppose he's referring to the AM stage).

So EMKA--->MKA is from the same family.

[input~2]

Rocket "Angara-1.2" with a satellite in the interests of the Russian Defense Ministry launched from Plesetsk

https://iz.ru/1328490/2022-04-29/raketa-angara-12-so-sputnikom-v-interesakh-mo-rf-startovala-s-plesetcka

[B. Hendrickx]

First spectacular pictures of the launch appearing on Russian social media.