Means cicada
Russian navigation program operational since April 1979 (deployment started in
late-1976). The satellites composing this system based on the Tsikada bus. This
bus carries the Tsikada navigation transponders and optional secondary
payloads, e.g. RS, etc. The
Cospas
(
Nadezhda)
package is carried as this secondary payload on some satellites.
Lately the satellites are known as
Nadezhda
when they carry a
Cospas
receiver or part of Cosmos.
A new generation is known as Kurs or Nadezhda M has just started and the
satellites are in the Cosmos program (since it is still experimental). This
generation is an new implementation of some equipment which can switch (on
ground command) between two modes. The standard mode is
Cospas
for search and rescue. The other mode is the Kurs geolocation/data
store-forward mode. The first use of this hardware was on
Cosmos 2315.
It was designed by Moscow's space instrumentation institute.
The system is based on 4 planes separated by 45° covering space in order
to complete the
Parus
system.
Occupation of the planes:
Note:
Cosmos 1380 failed to replace Cosmos 1168 in 1982 (placed on a wrong orbit)
The satellites of this program are based on the Musson bus (see
Parus
for details).
Those satellites downlink at 150.000/400.000 MHz.
Ref: #15 - update: 27.10.04