As reported by the TASS news agency, on the morning of May 18, 2022, the Russian military satellite Kosmos-2555, which was launched on April 29 using the Angara-1 launch vehicle, descended from orbit and burned in the atmosphere.2". This follows from the data of the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) of the United States.
Pre-launch preparation before the launch of the new Russian light launch vehicle "Angara-1.2" in serial execution, which launched the Kosmos-2555 spacecraft into orbit from the State Test Cosmodrome of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation (Plesetsk Cosmodrome, Arkhangelsk Region), 04/29/2022 (c) The Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation
Recall that from the State Test Cosmodrome of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation (Plesetsk Cosmodrome) in the Arkhangelsk Region, the combat crew of the Aerospace Forces of the Aerospace Forces successfully launched the Angara-1 light class launch vehicle on April 29, 2022.2" with the Kosmos-2555 spacecraft in the interests of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation.
On April 30, the Russian Ministry of Defense announced that "the launch of the launch vehicle and the launch of the spacecraft into the calculated orbit were carried out in normal mode. Two minutes after the launch, the launch vehicle "Angara-1.2"was accepted for support by ground-based controls of the Main Test Space Center named after Herman Titov", and that "at the estimated time, the spacecraft was launched into the target orbit and accepted for control by ground-based means of the Space Forces of the Aerospace Forces. Stable telemetry communication has been established and maintained with the spacecraft, its onboard systems are functioning normally."
According to American data, the spacecraft launched under the designation "Cosmos-2555" was launched into a sun-synchronous orbit of 279 x 294 km with an inclination of 96.44 degrees. However, according to subsequent foreign reports, in the following days, Kosmos-2555 carried out only one short-term correction of the orbit (May 6) and since then its orbit has shown a stable decline, as a result of which the device dropped to an orbit of 222 x 238 km by May 14. As a result, it was predicted to descend from orbit as early as May 15-16, unless a new correction occurs. According to a number of reports, attempts were made to correct the satellite's orbit on May 14, however. apparently, they did not have a serious effect, the device resumed its descent and on the morning of May 18 entered the dense layers of the atmosphere, presumably over the South Pacific Ocean south of New Zealand.
According to Western space observers, the Kosmos-2555 spacecraft was a military optical reconnaissance satellite of the EMKA series (a possible designation is also "Zvezda") developed by AO "Scientific and Production Corporation "Space Monitoring Systems, Information Management and Electromechanical Complexes" named after A.G. Iosifyan" (JSC "Corporation "VNIIEM", formerly All-Russian Research Institute of Electromechanics - VNIIEM).
According to Western sources, the launch of the first experimental EMKA satellite (presumably Zvezda-1, the open designation Cosmos-2525) was carried out by a Soyuz-2.1V carrier rocket from Plesetsk on March 29, 2018. The satellite operated for three years in an orbit with a height of 270 km to 320 km and entered the dense layers of the atmosphere on April 1, 2021.
It should be noted that, according to Western sources, the EMKA device was experimental and actually acted as a prototype-demonstrator of small-sized optical reconnaissance satellites of the new generation of the "Run-up" series developed by the same JSC "Corporation "VNIIEM". Presumably, the "Run-up" has a mass of about 250 kg, and possibly less, and is equipped with a digital camera developed by JSC Peleng (Belarus), which has a maximum resolution of 0.9 meters in panchromatic mode. As our blog has already reported, the launch of the first satellite "Run-up" under the designation "Cosmos-2551" was carried out by a Soyuz-2.1V carrier rocket from Plesetsk on September 9, 2021, but it turned out to be unsuccessful, the device did not function from the moment it entered orbit and burned down in dense layers of the atmosphere on October 20.
In view of this, it can be assumed that the device launched by the carrier rocket "Angara-1.2" under the designation "Cosmos-2555" was the second satellite of the "Run-up" series. However, as it is now obvious, its launch was also unsuccessful.
However, there is an alternative version, according to which the Kosmos-2551 and Kosmos-2555 spacecraft were allegedly used "to test suppression systems from the Ground."