The light-weight launch vehicle Rokot, which lifted off from Russia's Plesetsk cosmodrome on Thursday, July 3, has separated from the second stage and kept flying to the designated orbit, Aerospace Troops spokesperson Alexei Zolotukhin told ITAR-TASS.
The Briz-KM booster will put three Russian Gonets-M communication satellites into orbit in slightly over an hour.
The satellites will increase Russia’s Gonets space cluster to 10 pieces.
The Gonets satellite system is intended for establishing communication and transmitting various data, including coordinates and temperature parameters provided by the satellite communication system GLONASS. The information is transmitted by a group of space apparatuses flying on a low orbit at the altitude of 1,400km.
The Gonest satellite communication system is used for monitoring different infrastructure facilities, transmitting navigation and time parameters, established by means of the GLONASS system, from moving objects to different dispatcher and monitoring centers and ensuring communication with facilities on remote territories.
The Rokot’s high technical parameters were achieved due to the “Briz-KM” accelerator block which performs multiple functions, such as taking a space apparatus into orbits at different altitudes and with different inclinations. The accelerator block enables to ensure with a high precision the assigned orientation of a space apparatus during a launching process and throughout its orbital flight of up to seven hour.