Cosmos 2542 (14F150 No. 2)

Launch data:

Spacecraft data:

Description:

• Second mission in the 14F150 project, following the original launch in 2017, which was also officially described as having orbital inspection capabilities.
• This is possibly not the only Russian satellite fitted out with orbital inspection capabilities to have made its way into space on a clandestine mission. According to russianspaceweb.com, a website run by the respected Russian space journalist Anatoly Zak, similarities have been flagged up between Monday′s launch and a Soyuz 2-1v flight in June 2017 that was part of the Nivelir project. Shrouded in mystery at the time like this week′s launch, this flight also released a similarly-secretive payload into orbit.
  The Nivelir project officially got underway in September 2011 and has since launched four other satellites, Cosmos-2491, 2499 and 2504 in 2013, 2014 and 2015 respectively.
  The fourth, Cosmos-2519, was launched on a Soyuz-2-1v rocket on 23 June, 2017.
  The satellite is a product of the NPO Lavochkin design bureau, best known as a manufacturer of scientific satellites and deep space probes.

Mission details:

• According to the official Russian media quoting the Ministry of Defense, the Soyuz-2-1v rocket lifted off on November 25, 2019, at 20:52 Moscow Time and ground assets of the Titov Chief Test Space Center, GIKTs, of the nation′s Air and Space Forces began tracking the vehicle at 20:54 Moscow Time. The Blok I second stage reached a 289 x 364 km x 97.9 deg orbit.
• Around half an hour later, the official media announced that the payload section, including the Volga upper stage and the spacecraft, had separated from the second stage of the launch vehicle as planned at 21:00 Moscow Time.
  Tthe Volga third stage then fired to reach a 367 x 857 km x 97.9 deg orbit and deployed its payload.
• Around 8.5 hours after releasing its payload, the Volga upper stage initiated a pre-programmed deorbiting maneuver which resulted in its decay at an altitude of around 100 kilometers over the Pacific Ocean at 09:09 Moscow Time (1:09 a.m. EST) on November 26, 2019.
• On December 6, 2019, Cosmos-2542 satellite (44797) released what appears to be an inspector satellite, object No. 44835. The inspector satellite is most likely Cosmos-2543.
• At the time, the newly released vehicle was tracked in a 368 by 858-kilometer orbit with an inclination 97.895 degrees toward the Equator and a period of 96.95 minutes.
  By December 9, the US radar detected the first maneuver of the new satellite which boosted its perigee by four kilometers.

Mission details Cosmos 2543:

Mission details:

• Russia′s Cosmos-2543 satellite continues close approaches to Cosmos-2535 in a 603 x 618 km x 97.9 deg orbit. The US government issued a statement implying that it considered the ejection of object 45915 (possibly to be designated Kosmos-2547) from Kosmos-2543 to constitute an antisatellite test. The new object seems to have been ejected at 0749 UTC on Jul 15, 2020 into a 504 x 784 km orbit with a relative velocity in the 140-186 m/s range.
• A review of the satellites in this series and their orbital shenanigans at: Jonathan′s Space Report No781

Mission details Cosmos 2547:

External links:

• Russian Forces: Satellite Information
• Satellite tracking (n2ya.com): Real time Cosmos 2542 tracking
• Satellite tracking (n2ya.com): Real time Cosmos 2543 tracking
• Satellite tracking (n2ya.com): Real time Cosmos 2547 tracking