Application Satellites 1976-1980

SOVIET APPLICATION OF SPACE TO THE ECONOMY

SPACE APPLICATIONS

COMMUNICATIONS

THE MOLNIYA AND ORBITA SYSTEMS

Molniya 1 and Molniya 3 satellites continued to be launched through the end of 1983.

The launches within the various groups. Figures in parentheses indicate which earlier satellite was being replaced by the new launch. It can be seen that, with two exceptions, launches have been successful. The two mission failures were given the Kosmos label: Kosmos 1305 was intended to replace Molniya 3/12 but, due to an underburn of the e-stage, entered an orbit with a period of only 264 minutes, and was replaced by Molniya 3/17 36 days later; Kosmos 1423, intended to replace Molniya 1/48, exploded when the e-stage was fired in an attempt to achieve the highly elliptical orbit. It was nearly another year before Molniya 1/48 was finally replaced by Molniya 1/59. All but 5 of the 22 launches from 1981-1983 originated from Plesetsk. After an interval of 4Y2 years when no launches in this series came from Tyuratam, it was used for the launch of Kosmos 1423, and Molniyas 1/52, 1/55, 1/57, and 1/58, and these are denoted by a T in table 2.

Notes:

1. Figures above the line at the head of the table indicate the operational status as of Dec. 31, 1980.

2. Figures in parentheses indicate which earlier satellite was being replaced by the new launch.

3. Figures proceeded by K indicate the Kosmos designation of a failed mission.

4. T indicates a Tyuratam launch. All other launches were from Plesetsk.

5. Groups A, B, C, and D are separated by 90" in right ascension of the ascending node.

6. Molniys 3/21 is deliberately displaced (see text).

The established pattern was maintained of having pairs of Molniya 1 and 3 satellites in groups A through D, with orbital planes separated by 90° and then four additional Molniya 1's placed midway between these pairs. However, Molniya 3/21 was placed between groups A and B, but only 40° out of plane with the group A satellites. Thus it did not form an intergroup pair with Molniya 1/58. To date it is the only Molniya 3 not to have been placed in one of the four main groups. The 40° plane-spacing is reminiscent of the Kosmos early warning satellites and might signify the initiation of the expansion of the Molniya 3 system into a constellation of nine at 40° plane-spacing. On the other hand, Molniya 3/22, placed in group C, 140° out of plane with Molniya 3/21, does not lend support to such a hypothesis and Molniya 3/21 may prove to be an "on orbit spare" or it could have performed a fill-in role for the gap created by the Kosmos 1423 explosion. Its ground trace was partially stabilized after 6 days but not finalized until the 22d day of the mission. Johnson suggests that it was placed in the "empty' Molniya 1/48 position, (36) but this takes no account of the initial 40° offset, rather than the desired 45° midway spacing.

The Soviets experienced some difficulty in stabilizing the ground tracks of several of these satellites. Two opportunities were missed before the ground track of Molniya 1/49 was stabilized. The ground track of Molniya 3/19 was not stabilized at the first opportunity and was finally nudged into the correct position by a series of burns at 2- or 3-day intervals some 3 weeks later. The Molniya 1/59 ground track was not stabilized until the 17th day of the mission, its very low initial period of 702 minutes and Plesetsk launch causing the ground track to drift the "wrong" way. It has been reported that Molniya 3/19 carried a new SHF transponder and that, in the future, Molniya satellites may carry the Volna transponders for maritime and other mobile users. (37)

According to Valeriy Dudkin, head of the television department of the Ministry of Communications, the construction of receiving stations of the Orbita type for purely television purposes has been virtually stopped. Since the stations of the Ekran and Moskva systems cost less than the Orbita stations and are more widely spread they ensure reception of the first channel of Central Television while the Orbita stations in these zones are used for telecasting a second channel. All in all, one Molniya 3 and five satellites in geosynchronous orbits—Ekran, Raduga, and Gorizont—are used for television broadcasting in the Soviet Union. (38)

THE SYNCHRONOUS COMMUNICATIONS SATELLITES

The use of communications satellites in geosynchronous orbits has increased steadily over the past 3 years. The six launches in 1982 and again in 1983 set and maintained a new annual launch record.

Kosmos 1366 was described in the launch announcement as being a new experimental communications satellite to test super high frequency, SHF, equipment.

With the exceptions of Ekran 8 and Ekran 10, which were given Statsionar-T designations, Statsionar locations have not been specified in TASS launch announcements since the end of 1981.

One cannot be certain that the placing of a new satellite close to another already in geosynchronous orbit is an indication of the failure, or imminent failure, of the earlier payload. The use of "on orbit spares" to ensure continuity of service is a common practice

in the satellite communications industry. A more definite pointer to the end of the useful life of such a satellite is its removal from the geosynchronous orbit to prevent the increasing overcrowding of that unique orbit.

During 1981, Raduga 3 and Raduga 4 were maneuvered into eccentric orbits.

On March 27, 1983, it was reported that Indian Television has started broadcasting its program via the Soviet satellite Statsionar 6 [sic] instead of Intelsat 5. (39) The change was effected 2 days earlier following the leasing of a transponder on the Soviet satellite for a period of 10 months after the Intelsat authorities expressed an inability to continue to provide the facility. The arrangement was obviously made to ensure the continuation of the service to areas remote from ground-based television transmitters until the arrival of the dedicated Indian communications satellite, Insat 1B, which was launched from Challenger on the STS-8 mission on August 31.

On the following day, a Tass dispatch from New Delhi made political capital out of the situation and accused the United States of "depriving other countries of space means of communication" and attempting to "hold the Indian scientists, who controlled Insat 1A, responsible for the cessation of its work." The Press Asia Association, which was cited as the source of the allegations, was said to have claimed that Insat 1A, "for which a large sum of money was paid, had a whole number of defects." The dispatch ended by reporting representatives of Indian Television as saying that the quality of the signals transmitted by the Soviet satellite was "to their full satisfaction." (40)

The satellite in the Statsionar 6 location, above the Equator at 90° E, at that time was Gorizont 6 which was joined, or replaced, by Gorizont 8 later in the year.

INTERNATIONAL LINKS

Intersputnik

At the 12th session of Intersputnik in Tashken, in October 1983, the Bulgarian chairman of the Intersputnik Council stressed that the cooperation and international contacts of the organization were continually expanding. He went on to say that, in the next few years, it was planned to build new ground stations in Yemen, Syria, Kampuchea, Nicaragua, Grenada, and other countries. Zubarev, Deputy Minister of Communications of the U.S.S.R., was elected as the new chairman of the council. (41) Later events in Grenada may well have caused a revision of part of these plans.

Inmarsat

Inmarsat operations commenced on February 1982, when the Operations Control Center at its London headquarters assumed the network coordination functions previously performed in Washington, DC by Comsat General Corp. Maintenance and control of space-based hardware remain the responsibility of the respective spacecraft owners.

The first transmission of information to merchant ships was successfully carried out in Vladivostok in 1982. (42) The dedicated CES (Coast-Earth Station) near the Black Sea port of Odessa commenced operation on December 30, 1983.43 It was said to be able to simultaneously receive and transmit information from all ships sailing in the Indian and Atlantic Oceans.

Although the second such station, at Nakhodka in the Far Eastern U.S.S.R. had been expected to become operational before the end of 1982, the report stated that it was "still being built." (44)

To date, no Soviet satellite has been added to the system although overtures have been made to have satellites launched by the D-l Proton-class booster.

In 1983, Yuri Atserov, president of Morsviasputnik, assumed the 1-year appointment of chairman of the Inmarsat Council, having formerly served as vice chairman. (45)

KOSPAS-SARSAT

Kospas equipment was installed on the Kosmos 1383 and Kosmos 1447 navigation satellites which took identity numbers 11 and 13 respectively in the civil Navsat system and which therefore operate in orbital planes separated by 90°.

During the first few weeks of its operation, Kosmos 1383 was involved in rescue operations on at least six occasions, quickly validating the search and rescue principle. On September 10, 1982, it was instrumental in locating a light aircraft that had crashed in

British Columbia on the previous day. (46)

The United States installed its first Sarsat equipment onboard NOAA 8, launched on March 28, 1983. By the close of 1983 these three satellites had been instrumental in saving 63 lives in accidents. (47)

The system has been troubled by more than its fair share of false alarms. In 1983, it was instrumental in locating a radio distress beacon that had been stolen from the Shell Leman Echo gas platform in the North Sea between May 13 and 19. For some reason or other it began transmitting on June 15 and was received and located by the Kospas-Sarsat system. After a major land and sea search it was discovered on top of a wardrobe in a spare bedroom of a house near Glasgow, Scotland. As a result of legal action, the occupier of the house was convicted, at Ipswich Crown Court, of stealing the beacon, fined 500 pounds and ordered to pay costs and compensation totaling 1,599 pounds. (48)

References:

A. SOVIET SPACE PROGRAMS: 1976-80 (WITH SUPPLEMENTARY DATA THROUGH 1983), UNMANNED SPACE ACTIVITIES, PREPARED AT THE REQUEST OF Hon. JOHN C. DANFORTH, Chairman, COMMITTEE ON COMMERCE, SCIENCE, AND TRANSPORTATION, UNITED STATES SENATE, Part 3, MAY 1985, Printed for the use of the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, 99th Congress, 1 st. session, COMMITTEE PRINT, S. Prt. 98-235, U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE WASHINGTON: 1985

36. Johnson, N.L. The Soviet Year in Space: 1983. Teledyne Brown Engineering, 1984, p. 18.

37. Johnson, Nicholas L. The Soviet Year in Space: 1982. Teledyne Brown Engineering, 1983, p.

38. Dudkin, Valeriy. Soviet Weekly (London), Feb. 12, 1983, p 8.

39. Delhi Domestic Service in English, 0240 GMT, Mar. 27, 1983.

40. Tass in English, 1347 GMT, Mar. 28, 1983.

41. Moscow Home Service, 1600 GMT, Oct. 19, 1983.

42. Moscow in English for North America, 2200 GMT, Aug. 26, 1982.

43. Tass in English, 1205 GMT, Dec. 30, 1983.

44. Idem.

45. Soviet Weekly (London), July 30, 1983.

46. Aerospace Daily, vol. 117, Sept. 17, 1982, pp. 94-95.

47. Wilkinson, J. High Life (Headway, London), February 1984, p. 77.

48. Daily Telegraph (London), Mar. 6 and 9, 1984.

• Ms. Raleigh Is a physical sciences analyst In the Science Policy Research Division, Congressional Research Service, The Library of Congress.