Russia Launches Sat To Study Sun

Feb 3, 2009
By Aerospace Daily & Defense Report



Russia's first space launch of 2009 was a rare scientific mission, using a Tsyklon-3 rocket to deliver the third Coronas-Photon spacecraft into orbit.

Liftoff of the 4,200-pound spacecraft came at 8:30 a.m. EST Jan. 30 from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in Northern Russia, sending the satellite toward a 342-mile-high semi-sun-synchronous polar orbit. Mission managers delayed the launch a day to correct a technical problem, according to Russian press reports.

Coronos-Photon will take advantage of its orbit, which will give it as much as 20 days of uninterrupted exposure to the sun twice a year, to continue the solar studies started in 1994 with Coronas-I and continued in 2001 with Coronas-F. The newest spacecraft will study the sun's atmosphere and the links between solar flares and other activity on the sun and the Earth's magnetosphere, including magnetic storms.

Next up for Russia will be the Progress M-66/32P launch from Baikonur to the International Space Station on a Soyuz rocket on Feb. 10, followed on Feb. 11 by a Proton-M - also at Baikonur - with two Express-class Russian telecommunications satellites onboard.

Overall, Russian space organizations plan to conduct 39 space launches this year.

Sun photo: NOAA