Foton 9

Launch data:

Spececraft data

Mission details:

• Foton 12 (spacecraft 34KS No. 12) was launched on Sep 9. The Foton satellites, built by TsSKB Progress of Samara, Russia, are based on the Zenit spy satellite bus, related to the old Vostok spaceship. The spacecraft consists of a spherical descent module, a service module with solid-propellant deorbit motor, and a separable battery pack. Foton missions carry materials processing experiments and life sciences experiments. This flight carried a number of European experiments.
• The 11A511U (Soyuz-U) launch vehicle took off from Plesetsk at 1800 UTC on Sep 9 and entered a 216 x 379 km x 62.8 deg orbit 9 minutes later. After two weeks of microgravity, the battery pack and a small adapter separated, with two retrorocket covers also being ejected into a higher 323 x 492 km orbit. The retrorocket fired and separated, with the spacecraft's descent module landing in Russia at 52 28N 53 50E at between 0918 UTC and 0929 UTC on Sep 24, 1999.

End of life