Russia launches Proton-M rocket with next-gen weather satellite (VIDEO)

The heavy-lift vehicle started off from Baikonur on Thursday carrying the Elektro-L spacecraft into geostationary orbit

Russia’s Roscosmos successfully launched a Proton-M rocket carrying the Elektro-L No.5 weather satellite from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on Thursday. The liftoff occurred at 11:52 AM Moscow time, with the spacecraft set to reach geostationary orbit roughly six-and-a-half hours later.

The three-stage Proton-M, built by the Khrunichev Center, stands 57.6 metres tall and has a launch mass of 705 tonnes. Thursday’s mission marked the 430th launch in the Proton family’s six-decade history and the latest flight of the modernized Proton-M variant introduced in 2001.

The Elektro-L No.5 spacecraft, developed by NPO Lavochkin, is part of a next-generation meteorological satellite series designed to operate over 35,000 km above the Earth. Once in position, it will beam back round-the-clock images of the Earth in visible and infrared bands with a resolution of 1 and 4 km per pixel.

Its data will aid weather forecasting, sea and ocean monitoring, aviation safety, and studies of the ionosphere and Earth’s magnetic field. The satellite also contributes to the international Cospas-Sarsat search-and-rescue system.

Read more

Elektro-L No.5 joins three active satellites of the same series already in orbit, each with a 120-degree field of view, together providing continuous full-disc coverage of the entire planet. The new spacecraft has a designed service life of at least ten years.

Thursday’s launch came after a two-month delay. The mission was originally scheduled for December but was postponed after pre-flight inspections revealed a “local non-conformity” in the rocket’s upper stage. Roscosmos completed the necessary corrective work, and the vehicle was rolled out to the pad again on February 9.