Cosmos 2504

Launch data:

Spacecraft data:

Description:

• Cosmos 2504 is believed to be a third satellite in the serie of the 2 precidents Cosmos 2491 and 2499. In April, it also began maneuvering.
• These satellites carried an amateur radio payload RS-46 and RS-47.

Mission details:

• A Rokot launch vehicle placed three 225-kg Gonets-M message relay satellites in a 1500 km polar orbit on Mar 31, 2015.
• As with other recent Gonets and Strela launches, an additional military payload was carried. For the first time, this payload was ejected from the Briz-KM upper stage after its depletion burn, and so ended up in a lower perigee orbit than the Gonets trio. The payload, Cosmos-2504, began small orbit maneuvers on Apr 9, 2015.
• The Cosmos-2504 satellite, launched in March as the third of a series of somewhat-mysterious '14F153' Russian technology-development payloads, made a major orbit change on Jul 3, 2015 around 07:10 UTC from its initial 1172 x 1506 km orbit to a lower 1119 x 1451 km orbit. This is likely to be the first move in a new rendezvous experiment of some kind. The satellite previously completed a rendezvous with its Briz-KM rocket stage around Apr 14, 2015 and appears to have deliberately or accidentally hit the stage, according to reports by Anatoliy Zak at russianspaceweb.com.