Yantar (satellite)
Yantar (Russian: Янтарь meaning amber) is a series of
History
In 1964, Soviet design bureau OKB-1 was tasked with improving on the newly operational Zenit-2 reconnaissance satellites. They had three streams of work: modifying Zenit satellites, a manned reconnaissance craft called Soyuz-R and a new photoreconnaissance satellite based on Soyuz-R. The third stream was code-named Yantar and initially there were to be two types - Yantar-1 for medium resolution imaging and Yantar-2 for high resolution. In 1967, a new high resolution satellite was proposed called Yantar-2K. Yantar-2K received government support with the first flight originally planned for 1970, although this deadline slipped.[5]
The Yantar program produced two memorable launch accidents. The first of these was on May 15, 1996 when an attempted launch of a 1KFT (Kometa) at Baikonur's LC-31 failed 50 seconds after liftoff when the payload fairing disintegrated. The satellite was destroyed by aerodynamic forces, but the booster continued to fly until T+126 seconds when it began to drift off its flight path, leading to an automatic shutdown command. On June 20, a few weeks later, a 4K1 (Oktan) launched from Plesetsk's LC-16 and met nearly the same fate when again the payload fairing disintegrated 50 seconds after launch. This time the onboard destruct system on the satellite activated and destroyed it, after which ground controllers sent a manual shutdown command to the booster, which crashed 4 miles (6 kilometers) from the pad. The back-to-back failures were traced to a manufacturing defect in the payload shrouds, which were produced in a batch, and they left Russia's ability to perform military reconnaissance severely hampered. In both cases, the shrouds broke up at the point of maximum aerodynamic pressure during ascent.
Variants
Yantar-2K
Yantar-2K differed from Zenit in that it had to stay in orbit for a month unlike Zenit's 8–14 days. It also had two film return capsules, something it had in common with the US
Yantar-4K1
Yantar-4K1 was a modification of the Yantar-2K. It had a better camera, the Zhemchug-18, and was in orbit for 45 days rather than the 30 days of Yantar-2K. Other systems were the same as the Yantar-2K and both types of satellites were launched in the same period.[5][6] Both satellites were retired in 1984.
Series | Other designations | GRAU index
|
First launch | Last launch | Number launched | Remarks |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Yantar-2K | Feniks (Russian: Феникс meaning phoenix) [7] | 11F624 | 23 May 1974 | 28 June 1983 | 30 | |
Yantar-4K1 | Oktan (Russian: Октан meaning octane) [8] | 11F693 | 27 April 1979 | 30 November 1983 | 12 | |
Yantar-1KFT | Kometa (Russian: Комета meaning comet) Siluet (Russian: Силуэт meaning silhouette) [9] |
11F660 | 18 February 1981 | 2 September 2005 | 21 | |
Yantar-4K2
|
Kobalt (Russian: Кобальт meaning cobalt) [10] | 11F695 | 21 August 1981 | 25 February 2002 | 82 | |
Yantar-4KS1
|
Terilen (Russian: Терилен meaning terylene) [11]
|
11F694 | 28 December 1982 | 21 December 1990 | 15 | |
Yantar-4KS1M | Neman (Russian: Неман meaning Neman) [12] | 17F117 | 10 July 1991 | 3 May 2000 | 9 | |
Yantar-4K2M | Kobalt-M [13][14] | 11F695M | 24 September 2004 | 5 June 2015 | 10 |
References
- ^ Wade, Mark. "Yantar". Encyclopedia Astronautica. Archived from the original on November 29, 2010. Retrieved 2009-01-24.
- ^ Johnson, Stephen B. (2006). "The History and Histography of National Security Space" (PDF). NASA.
- ^ "Russia successfully launches military satellite". Xinhua. 2012-05-18. Archived from the original on 2013-10-22. Retrieved 2012-06-01.
- ^ Zak, Anatoly (2012-09-28). "Kobalt-M satellite". Russian Space Web. Retrieved 2016-03-14.
- ^ a b c d e Gorin, Peter (1998). "Black "Amber":Russian Yantar-Class Optical Reconnaissance Satellites". Journal of the British Interplanetary Society. 51: 309–320.
- ^ a b c d Sorokin, Vladislav. "Fourth generation reconnaissance satellites - Yantar-2K". Novosti Kosmonavtiki. Retrieved 2012-06-04.
- ^ Krebs, Gunter. "Yantar-2K (Feniks, 11F624)". Gunter's Space Page. Retrieved 2009-01-24.
- ^ Krebs, Gunter. "Yantar-4K1 (Oktan, 11F693)". Gunter's Space Page. Retrieved 2009-01-24.
- ^ Krebs, Gunter. "Yantar-1KFT (Kometa, Siluet, 11F660)". Gunter's Space Page. Retrieved 2009-01-24.
- ^ Krebs, Gunter. "Yantar-4K2 (Kobalt, 11F695)". Gunter's Space Page. Retrieved 2009-01-24.
- ^ Krebs, Gunter. "Yantar-4KS1 (Terilen, 11F694)". Gunter's Space Page. Retrieved 2009-01-24.
- ^ Krebs, Gunter. "Yantar-4KS1M (Neman, 17F117)". Gunter's Space Page. Retrieved 2009-01-24.
- ^ Krebs, Gunter. "Yantar-4K2M (Kobalt-M, 11F695M ?)". Gunter's Space Page. Retrieved 2012-06-01.
- ISBN 978-0-87724-068-6. Archived from the original(PDF) on 2016-03-03. Retrieved 2012-06-01.