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Meteor
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Meteor
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The first Soviet weather satellite. Development began with a decree of 30 October 1960. Work began in 1961 at OKB-586 GKOT; in 1962 it was transferred to NII-627. Final development was completed in 1964. The Meteor system subcontractors were:
- VNII-380 GKRE Rosselevich - television
- OKB Geofizika GKOT - Khrustalev - radiometer
- NII-648 Mnatsakanian - radio technical system
The first of four launches were on Vostok-M boosters at 81.2 degree inclinations. The system finally was accepted for military service and went into operation in 1969.
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Meteor M
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Acquisition of meteorological information needed for use by the weather service.
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Meteor-2
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Successor to the Meteor-1 weather satellite. The Meteor-2 had a longer design operational life (one year vs. six months) and the capability to transfer data to automatically to military APPI stations (Autonomous Points of Information Collection). A total of 21 launches of the functional satellite were conducted from 1975 to 1993.
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Meteor-Priroda
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Soviet development of remote sensing systems in support of the national economy began with a decree in December 1971 'On development work for research on earth resources using space technology'. The result was Meteor-Priroda 1, launched on 9 July 74 into a 950 km orbit by a Vostok-2M rocket, The satellite, derived from the basic Meteor weather satellite, was equipped with a radio-television system using an optico-mechanical sensor by VNIIEM Minelektrotekhprom, A G Yosifyan, General designer. This was followed from 18 May 1976 by Meteor-Priroda 2-1, in 650 km sun-synchronous 97 degree orbits. Receiving stations were located at Goskomgidormet facilities in Moscow, Novosibirsk, Khabarovsk.
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Resurs-O2
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Originally scheduled to replace Resurs-O1 in late 1992, Resurs-O2 represented an evolutionary improvement of the Resurs-O1 system which added both a synthetic aperture radar (SAR) and a microwave radiometer capability. Resurs-O2 not only was heavier (2,400 kg with a payload of 900 kg) but also was to be placed in a higher, 830-km orbit to increase its coverage potential. Following the financial crunch after the fall of the Soviet Union, it was never launched.
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Resurs-OE
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Modified Meteor; prototype for Resurs-O1. Acquisition of information required for continued investigation of the natural resources of the earth; development of remote sensing methods for measuring the status of the earth's surface and the atmosphere beneath the satellite.
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Meteor-3
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Meteor-3 began in 1972 as an improved replacement for the Meteor-2 weather satellite. It underwent an incredibly difficult and protracted development, not flying until the 1990's.
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Resurs-O1
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A decree of 5 May 1977 authorized development of three earth resource satellites. The Ministry of Defense was tasked with developing these systems, even though they did not contribute directly to any military mission. One of these was Resurs-O, which became Meteor-Priroda 3, based on the VNIIEM second generation Meteor bus. The satellite included the Fragment multispectral scanner by IKI NA and a charged-coupled detector by NPO Radiopribor. Meteor-Priroda 3-1 featured a data transmittal rate of 8 mbit/sec. The system was installed experimentally on several Meteor (Resurs-OE) spacecraft for both military and civilian use. The Aist automatic control system was built by 53-NIIP MO.
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Meteor-3M
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The Meteor-3 weather satellite was to be followed in 1996 by the first of the Meteor-3M class, which was finally put into orbit in 2001. Use of the Zenit launch vehicle allowed the overall mass of the Meteor-3M spacecraft to be increased to 2,500 kg, including a larger payload of up to 900 kg. In addition, the average daily power available nearly doubled to 1 kW, and the spacecraft stabilization accuracy was improved by an order of magnitude. Pointing accuracy was improved. Satellite design lifetime increased to three years.
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© Mark Wade, 1997 - 2007 except where otherwise noted.
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