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Kosmos 2261

Russian military early warning satellite

Field	Value
name	Kosmos 2261
mission_type	Early warning
COSPAR_ID	1993-051A
SATCAT	22741
mission_duration	4 years
spacecraft_type	US-K
launch_mass	1900 kg
launch_date	UTC
launch_rocket	Molniya-M/2BL
launch_site	Plesetsk Cosmodrome
orbit_reference	Geocentric
orbit_regime	Molniya
orbit_periapsis	625 km
orbit_apoapsis	39725 km
orbit_inclination	62.9 degrees
orbit_period	717.70 minutes
apsis	gee

Kosmos 2261 ( meaning Cosmos 2261) is a Russian US-K missile early warning satellite which was launched in 1993 as part of the Russian Space Forces' Oko programme. The satellite is designed to identify missile launches using optical telescopes and infrared sensors. It was estimated in the west that it stopped functioning in March 1998, and reentered destructively on December 31, 2012. (the early morning of January 1, 2013 in some time zones)

Kosmos 2261 was launched from Site 16/2 at Plesetsk Cosmodrome in Russia. A Molniya-M carrier rocket with a 2BL upper stage was used to perform the launch, which took place at 14:53 UTC on 10 August 1993. The launch successfully placed the satellite into a molniya orbit. It subsequently received its Kosmos designation, and the international designator 1993-051A. The United States Space Command assigned it the Satellite Catalog Number 22741.

Its predicted re-entry time was December 31, 2012 at 11:29 UTC ± 2 hours.

References

|url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120315024323/http://iis-db.stanford.edu/pubs/20734/Podvig-S%26GS.pdf |archive-date=2012-03-15

References

N. Busch. (2004). "No End in Sight: The Continuing Menace of Nuclear Proliferation". University Press of Kentucky.
"Aerospace.org - Cosmos 2261".
(2012-04-20). "Cosmos 2261". National Space Science Data Centre.
(2012-03-08). "US-K (73D6)". Gunter's Space Page.
McDowell, Jonathan. "Satellite Catalog". Jonathan's Space Page.
McDowell, Jonathan. "Launch Log". Jonathan's Space Page.

Info: Wikipedia Source

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