Photo by the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation
The RD-107A/108A serial rocket engines manufactured at PJSC Kuznetsov, the Samara-based enterprise of the United Engine Corporation, ensured the successful launch of the Soyuz-2.1a space rocket with the Frigate booster block and the Meridian satellite in the interest of the Russian Ministry of Defense.
The launch took place from the Plesetsk cosmodrome in the Arkhangelsk region on 30th of July, at 08:55 Moscow time. The enterprise’s engines installed at the first and second stages of the space rocket of the Soyuz-2.1a carrier worked properly. Three minutes after the launch, the rocket was accepted for escort by means of the ground-based automated control complex of the German Titov Main Testing Space Center.
At the estimated time, the Meridian spacecraft was launched into the target orbit and taken into control by the ground-based means of the Aerospace Forces. A stable telemetric communication is established and maintained with the satellite. The onboard systems of the Meridian spacecraft are functioning normally.
The satellite is designed to provide communication between ships and ice reconnaissance aircrafts in the Northern Sea Route area with coastal, ground stations, and expand the network of satellite communications stations in the northern regions of Siberia and the Far East.
The use of Meridian satellites in a highly elliptical orbit will improve the operational and technical and economic characteristics of existing communications by expanding the frequency ranges used, introducing additional trunks, increasing the life activity period in orbit and improved reliability indicators.
