Plesetsk Cosmodrome
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Plesetsk Cosmodrome is a Russian spaceport, located in Arkhangelsk Oblast, about 800 km north of Moscow and south of Arkhangelsk..
It was originally developed by the Soviet Union as a launch site for intercontinental ballistic missiles. Construction started in 1957 and it was declared operational for R-7 rockets in December 1959. The urban-type settlement of Plesetsk in Arkhangelsk Oblast had a railway station, essential for the transport of missile components. A new town for the support of the facility was named Mirny, Russian for "peaceful". By 1997, more than 1,500 launches to space had been made from the site, more than for any other launch facility, although the usage has declined significantly since the breakup of the Soviet Union.
The existence of Plesetsk Cosmodrome was originally kept secret, but it was discovered by British physics teacher Geoffrey Perry and his students, who carefully analyzed the orbit of the Cosmos 112 satellite in 1966 and deduced it had not been launched from Baikonur Cosmodrome. After the end of the Cold War it was learned that the CIA had begun to suspect the existence of an ICBM launch site at Plesetsk in the late 1950s. The Soviet Union did not officially admit the existence of Plesetsk Cosmodrome until 1983.
Plesetsk is used especially for military satellites placed into high inclination and polar orbits since the range for falling debris is clear to the north which is largely uninhabited arctic and polar terrain. It is situated in a region of taiga, or flat terrain with boreal pine forests. Plesetsk is Russia's equivalent to the U.S. Air Force's Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.
The use of the cosmodrome will likely increase in future since there are concerns with security in operating the Baikonur Cosmodrome in now-independent Kazakhstan, which also demands rent for its continued use. Plesetsk is not ideally suited for low inclination or geostationary launches because of its high latitude (as compared to the Kennedy Space Center, at around 28° north or Guiana Space Center at Kourou, the ESA facility, which is at 5° north). In spite of this, the new all-Russian Angara rocket is designed to be launched primarily from Plesetsk when it comes into service.
Currently, the Soyuz launch vehicle, Cosmos-3M, Rockot and Tsyklon are launched from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome. The heavy Proton and Zenit rockets can only be launched from Baikonur.
The Cosmodrome is served by Plestsy Airport.
[edit] Disasters
- On June 26, 1973 9 people were killed by an explosion of Cosmos 3-M rocket, ready for launch.
- On March 18, 1980 50 people were killed by an explosion of a Vostok-2M rocket with a Tselina satellite, during a fueling operation.
- On October 15, 2002, a Soyuz carrying a science payload began disintegrating twenty seconds after launch from Plesetsk, exploded nine seconds later and showered debris around the launch site. The explosion killed 20-year-old soldier Ivan Marchenko, who had been watching the launch from behind a large glass window in a processing facility a kilometre from the launch pad. Eight other soldiers who were with Marchenko were injured, six being hospitalized. Rocket fragments fell in the woods in the same area starting a forest fire, and a Block D strap-on booster which came off during disintegration impacted the launch pad, causing structural damage. Video of the accident
