Washington. February 8. INTERFAX-A military satellite launched into orbit on February 2 by the Russian Armed Forces is designed to detect and intercept foreign military communication lines, the specialized American website Spaceflight Now reported.
According to him, the Russian military placed a reconnaissance satellite "Lotos-S1" in an orbit up to 900 km high with the help of a Soyuz-2.1 b launch vehicle launched from the Plesetsk cosmodrome.
The publication indicates that the first electronic reconnaissance spacecraft of this series was launched in 2009. This was followed by launches in 2014, 2017 and 2018.
According to the website Next Spaceflight, "Lotus" - a series of Russian satellites, which are one of the components of the radio intelligence system (RTR) of the new generation "Liana".
Devices of this series, along with the second component of the system RTR Liana - companions series 14Ф139 "Pion-NKS" - should be replaced in service by the Ministry of defense satellites Soviet development of similar purpose: "Tselina-2" and "US-NY", included in the system RTR GRU and the Maritime reconnaissance and targeting "Legend", respectively.