SPACE.com -- Russia Launches Two Cosmos Satellites on Kosmos 3M Booster


	Russia Launches Two Cosmos Satellites on Kosmos 3M Booster By SPACE.com Staff posted: 09:30 am ET 19 August 2002

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- A pair of Russian military satellites were successfully launched atop a Kosmos 3M booster on Tuesday, Russian officials announced.

Liftoff from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome was reported at 6:50 a.m. EDT (1050 GMT). Both spacecraft were reported to have achieved orbit by 7:44 a.m. EDT (1244 GMT).

No details of the satellites' mission were released except that the spacecraft were dubbed Cosmos 2400 and Cosmos 2401.

The booster includes two liquid-fueled stages and its record stretches back some 40 years and includes hundreds of launches.

The launch comes as Russia is showing off the capabilities of the Plesetsk Cosmodrome to the public for the first time at a major air show near Moscow that is known as MAKS-2003, according to the Interfax news agency.

"The Space Forces will have their debut at the Moscow air show and their exhibits will include rocket and space equipment used at the Defense Ministry's Plesetsk launching pad," officials said in a statement.

According to Interfax, Space Forces commander Anatoly Perminov said the Plesetsk Cosmodrome is Russia's largest launch pad and a major research and training center where highly-skilled personnel work.

"In late 2003, a ground complex for the upgraded Soyuz-2 carrier rocket will be put into operation at Plesetsk. This will be followed by the commissioning of the first phase in the Angara rocket complex with a light-class carrier rocket, and with a heavy-class carrier in 2005. They will be used to launch spacecraft under defense and commercial projects," Perminov said.

Originally, Plesetsk was a base for an intercontinental ballistic missile complex. On March 17, 1996, a Vostok-2 rocket carrying the Cosmos 112 spacecraft was launched into orbit from Plesetsk.

Since its foundation, more than 1,500 rockets and more than 500 intercontinental ballistic missiles have been launched from Plesetsk, officials said.

Some 1,955 spacecraft have been put into orbit, and ten types of rockets and eleven missile launchers for the Space Forces have been tested, Interfax reported.