Russia launches Glonass-K2 No. 13

Image: GLONASS

The Russian Federal Space Agency has launched one of its Glonass global positioning satellites, Glonass-K2 No. 13 (Kosmos 2569), into medium-Earth orbit (MEO) on August 7, at 13:20 UTC, reported Everyday Astronaut and Russian Space Web. The satellite was launched on the Soyuz 2.1b launch vehicle from Plesetsk Cosmodrome, in Russia.

Glonass-K2 No. 13 was launched to improve the accuracy of the Russian dual-use global positioning system. The K2 satellites are the fourth iteration in satellite design for GLONASS.

The new generation of satellites provide navigation accuracy of less than 30 cm and feature an unpressurized satellite bus (Ekspress-1000) manufactured by ISS Reshetnev. The satellites also use a novel navigation signal, code-protected selection, to transmit three signal types, including two in the L1 and L2 ranges for military users, and one channel in the L1 range accessible to the civilian users.

Each K2 satellite weighs 1,645 kg and has an operational lifetime of 10 years.