Russia launches 73 satellites into orbit

Should We Be Concerned That Russia Just Launched A Blanket Of 73 Satellites Into Outer Space?

I know - everywhere we look it's Russia this and that - but there's nothing like the 'in plain sight' theory now is there?

An imaging satellite and 72 micro-satellites were launched into orbit Friday from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, the Russian space agency Roscosmos and research centre Glavcosmos announced.

According to Russian news agencies, Glavcosmos, charged with putting the satellites into orbit, later reported that by 1441 GMT all the satellites had successfully separated. They were released into three different orbits.

“For the first time in the world, such a complex and large mission has been developed and implemented,” said Glavcosmos.

We do live in interesting times...

AFP

An imaging satellite and 72 micro-satellites were launched into orbit Friday from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, the Russian space agency Roscosmos and research centre Glavcosmos announced. The Soyuz 2-1A rocket successfully lifted off at 0643 GMT with the satellite payload, Roscosmos said in a statement. According to Russian news agencies, Glavcosmos, charged with putting the satellites into orbit, later reported that by 1441 GMT all the satellites had successfully separated. They were released into three different orbits.

It doesn't seem there's anything hinky about this but they wouldn't tell us if there was a military application to any of this - I know that much.

peace

LOL India did 104 few month ago

104 from India

a reply to: silo13

NASA launched a load a few months ago , they seem to be en-vogue at the moment , just more junk floating around up there.

Lounging 86 sats is nothing these days.. you know what is massive? Microwaving a sat.. there is no you tube video there yet.. i look all The time.

I wonder how much the salvage business could get from the debris.

originally posted by: Trillium
LOL India did 104 few month ago

104 from India

Adding to space junk blanket. At least little ones burn up on reentry, unless they are 'rods of god' or something.

originally posted by: Trillium
LOL India did 104 few month ago

104 from India

You should really try reading the source material first?

If we include the nano-satellites, like India did, then this launch contained 134 satellites.

The Russians only count what they deploy, they do not count what the packages they deploy, deploy.

The Russians deployed 73 packages. Of those 73 packages, 72 were micro satellites, and the 73rd was a package that went on to deploy 62 nano-satellites. Total number of satellites deployed = 134.

a reply to: Trillium

Its getting crowded up there. Wonder how long before Amazon launches a bunch to help with drone delivery navigation.

a reply to: Trillium

Its getting crowded up there. Wonder how long before Amazon launches a bunch to help with drone delivery navigation.

a reply to: silo13

Those spacecraft launched by the Russians were designed, built, and operated by a US startup company--Planet Labs, Inc. They are headquartered in San Francisco, with secondary offices in Silicon Valley, Germany, and the Netherlands

www.planet.com...

Ditto, the spacecraft launched by India.

These are small Earth observing spacecraft, each one with a telescope the size of a small Questar. They are not particularly high resolution, but because there are nearly 200 of them now in orbit, at least one will fly over every piece of land about once a day. The idea is to be able to detect changes on the globe's land surface on a daily basis. Customers for the data include agribusiness, state and regional land planning organizations, disaster relief organizations, national security organizations, etc.

The spacecraft are built on what is called the "cubesat" format and are about 4 inches by 4 inches by 12 inches--like a large loaf of bread.

Whenever a launch vehicle goes to orbit, there is almost always a primary customer who is paying for the launch. Usually the primary customer will be launching a large payload that uses most of the launch capacity. Typically, the payload would be a scientific research spacecraft, a communication/navigation spacecraft, or a military/national security spacecraft. You never design the payload to use up literally 100% of the launch capacity; you always want to have some margin between how much the primary payload weighs and how much the launch vehicle can throw. However, as the primary payload gets close to the launch date, the launch provider will start freeing up excess throw capacity for secondary payloads. If you have small spacecraft (like cubesats) and are willing to fly whenever the primary payload says to, you can purchase a ride to orbit at a reduced cost. Most launch vehicle providers these days--including SpaceX-- offer reduced rate secondary payload launches for small satellites. The Russians and Indians were chosen for these last two launches because they offered attractive prices at times when the spacecraft would be ready to launch.

These spacecraft typically start out flying at Space Station altitudes and will typically fall out of orbit within 10 years or so.

originally posted by: intrptr

originally posted by: Trillium
LOL India did 104 few month ago

104 from India

Adding to space junk blanket. At least little ones burn up on reentry, unless they are 'rods of god' or something.

Hope this isnt a little off topic, but i wonder what our planet looks like from a vantage point behind the sun with all of that stuff up there.

Ive looked at the website that claims to track every piece of hardware up there with an expandable 3d view point of earth and I just have to think our little pale blue dot is extremely bright.

I know that one can see satelites that are in orbit, if hit right by the sun are extremley bright.

It just made me think of that star MSM for a while was interested in that dims and brightens. There is so much reflecitve hardware above our planet I just have to think our little "pale dot" is not so pale anymore.

a reply to: 1947boomer
If understand, in ten years debris from hundreds of satellites will be falling to earth at the same time?

originally posted by: MOMof3
If understand, in ten years debris from hundreds of satellites will be falling to earth at the same time?

The vast majority will never make it through reentry.

Most of the nano-satellites follow the US CubeSat standard pattern. Making the majority of them approx the size of an adult fist (10cm x10cm x10cm), and under 3lbs.

They won't literally all de orbit at the same instant. The main effect that causes them to de orbit is atmospheric drag. Even though the atmosphere is extremely thin at that altitude, it acts continuously to slow a spacecraft down and bring it to lower and lower orbits. The atmosphere is thicker at lower altitudes, which causes it to go even lower and so on. This is called orbital decay and is an example of exponential growth. Over time, small differences in the atmospheric density and the drag on each spacecraft causes them to drift apart. All the spacecraft that were put up at one time might de orbit over a period of months.

They are not designed to hold together on re-entry and generally don't. The expectation is that they will break into smaller parts and the parts will decelerate below terminal velocity very high in the air. By the time they reach the surface they will be going the same speed as if they were dropped off let's say, the top of a 10 story building. And, of course, the large majority will fall in the ocean.

a reply to: MOMof3

a reply to: Spader

They are palming to use the Jack Webb telescope to focus on other stars and maybe their planets atmospheres, eclipsing them against their star to see if any technology exists. I wonder if the resolution will be great enough to resolve that 'glitter' from alien space junk...

a reply to: silo13

Should be 72 that number keeps coming up.

Looks like some kind of race going on, like who controls the nanobots they have put in all us via food, water, air..first!

What is the purpose of all those satellites? If not military application, then what?

a reply to: olaru12

That's my question - I was in hopes someone here could answer.

Three of these satellits were Norwegian made, and sendt up for Research on behalf of Norway.

Silo13 and Olaru12:

I thought I did answer; maybe I wasn't clear. With a constellation of around 200 satellites in low Earth orbit one of them will fly over any given spot on the Earth about once a day. That means it can take a new picture of that spot every day. These satellites can take pictures of objects about as small as a car. That means you can detect whether a particular tree is cut down from one day to another, how far a forest fire has burned, how far the flood waters have intruded into a city, which wheat fields are dying from drought, where the volcanic ash from a volcano eruption is going, which ships are entering and leaving port, how many prisoners are being held in North Korean prison camps, and on and on.

The idea is to look for changes on the land surface of the planet on a daily basis and either sell and/or give the information to whoever has an interest in that information. That includes various regional governments who need to do development planning, disaster relief agencies, the California Division of Forestry, China, the Department of Defense, steamship lines, agribusiness corporations, and more.

Anyone (subject to US Government approval) can buy the data and some of it is going to be made available for free. For example, I think the state of California is paying to take a new picture of the state every day for a year and make the images available for free.



a reply to: silo13