Soyuz 2.1a | Obzor-R No.1
Programma
Pad
Plesetsk Cosmodrome is a Russian spaceport located in Mirny, Arkhangelsk Oblast, about 800 km north of Moscow and approximately 200 km south of Arkhangelsk. Originally developed as an ICBM site for the R-7 missile, it also served for numerous satellite launches using the R-7 and other rockets. Its high latitude makes it useful only for certain types of launches, especially the Molniya orbits, so for much of the site's history it functioned as a secondary location, with most orbital launches taking place from Baikonur, in the Kazakh SSR. With the end of the Soviet Union, Baikonur became a foreign territory, and Kazakhstan charged $115 million usage fees annually. Consequently, Plesetsk has seen considerably more activity since the 2000s.
Rocket
The Soyuz 2.1A converted the flight control system from analog to digital, which allowed launch from fixed platforms. It also allowed big fairings and payloads. It is currently used for crewed Soyuz and Progress flights to the ISS.
Full Name: Soyuz 2.1a
Maiden Flight: 2004-11-04
Total Launch Count: 51
Successful Launches: 50
Failed Launches: 1
Mission
Mission Name: Obzor-R No.1
Type: Earth Science
Description: The Russian Obzor-R satellite is a planned X-band radar earth observation satellite designed by TsSKB-Progress. In 2012, the development of the Arkon-2M radar satellite was stopped and instead the development of the Obzor-R was initiated. The satellite features the BRLK X-band Synthetic Aperture Radar as the imaging instrument with a ground resolution of 500 m.
Orbit: Sun-Synchronous Orbit
Updates
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2025-03-06T06:50:00ZNET summer-fall 2025.
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2023-03-26T07:53:46ZNET Late 2023.
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2023-11-08T16:30:55ZNET Q1 2024.
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2024-08-24T12:35:34ZNET Q4 2024.