Cosmos 2487

Spacecraft nº:

Russian spacecraft nº:

Launch data: Designation  39194 / 13032A Launch date  27 June 2013 - 16:53 UT Launch site  Baikonur, LC-175/59 Launch vehicle  Strela Mission  Earth observation, radar Satellite type  Kondor-E Designation nr.  14F133 Earth orbit: Perigee / Apogee  498 x 502 km Eccentricity   Inclination  74.7 deg Period  94.5 min

Spacecraft data:

Description:

• The Kondor is an 800 kg Earth observation small spacecraft designed to provide high-resolution imagery and terrain mapping in real-time. The spacecraft can be equipped with either a synthetic aperture radar (SAR) or electro-optic payload. The SAR radar with a 9.6 cm wavelength has a resolution of 1-20 meters over a 10x200 km surveillance area. Its parabolic antenna has a 6-meter diameter and is capable of stereoscopic and interferometric imagery processing. The electro-optic payload provides near-infrared imagery featuring a resolution of one meter. The Kondor Earth observation satellite is provided with a ground flight control station and data reception and processing centers. The data gathered by the Kondor Earth observation satellite is suitable for both civil and military applications such as agriculture, forestry, mapping industry, land use management, geology, mineral exploration, environmental protection, ship navigation, and ice reconnaissance. It is available for the export market as the Kondor-E.
• The Kondor spacecraft has been developed by NPO Mashinostroyenia (NPO Mash), and is designed to carry either an electro-optical or radar imaging payload. An export version, the Kondor-E, has been developed for other users.
• The satellite on Thursday’s launch was believed to be the radar imaging variant, and will be the Russian military’s first radar satellite. Russia has previously operated two civilian spacecraft with radar imaging capabilities – the Almaz 1 satellite it inherited from the Soviet Union, and the Priroda module of the Mir space station.
• Development of the Kondor satellite began in the early 1990s, with NPO Mash proposing to the Russian government a small satellite carrying a radar imaging payload.
  NPO Mash received an order from the Russian military for both radar and optical-imaging versions of this satellite in 1997, however by the end of the decade funding had been cut, and NPO Mash looked to develop the satellites for the export market instead.
  This project became known as the Kondor-E. Funding for the military Kondor satellite was later restored.
  In either the optical or radar imaging configuration, Kondor satellites produce images with a resolution of about one meter.
  The radar imaging payload was developed by NPO Vega, while the optical payload will be built by the Leningrad Optical Mechanical Association. Each satellite has a design life of around three years.
  The optical satellites have a mass of around 1,150 kilograms, and while the mass of the radar satellites has not been reported, a mass simulator launched in 2003 had a mass of 978 kilograms.

Mission details:

• Delayed from Mars & Nov 29, 2012.
• The blastoff of the Strela rocket from Site 175 in Baikonur took place as scheduled on June 27, 2013, at 20:53:00 Moscow Summer Time. The launch vehicle heading east from the Kazakhstan launch site carried the Kondor-E satellite scheduled to separate from its rocket at 21:18:35 Moscow Time into a circular orbit with an altitude of 504.7 kilometers and an inclination 74.75 degrees toward the Equator.
• Kondor blasted off on a Strela rocket from a very old but still operational underground launch pad. This hardened facility protected with a massive steel cover was originally built in the USSR along with numerous other fortified missile silos spread around Baikonur Cosmodrome. Although the main purpose of the site was testing Soviet UR-100-series ICBMs, the silo was also capable of launching an actual doomsday attack in the event of a nuclear war. Not coincidently, the facility is located just a short distance away from a site, where Soviet Proton rockets were launching into orbit Kondor's oversized predecessors equipped with large military radar antennas.

Satellite tracking: