Parus ( meaning ''Sail''), also Tsyklon-B or Tsiklon-B ( meaning ''Cyclone-B'') and Tsikada-M ( meaning ''Cicada-M''), GRAU index 11F627, was a Russian, previously

Soviet The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

satellite constellation used for

communication Communication is commonly defined as the transmission of information. Its precise definition is disputed and there are disagreements about whether Intention, unintentional or failed transmissions are included and whether communication not onl ...

and

navigation Navigation is a field of study that focuses on the process of monitoring and controlling the motion, movement of a craft or vehicle from one place to another.Bowditch, 2003:799. The field of navigation includes four general categories: land navig ...

. As of 2010, 99 Parus satellites had been launched, starting with Kosmos 700 in 1974. All launches had been conducted using

Kosmos-3M The Kosmos-3M ( meaning "''Cosmos''", GRAU index 11K65M) was a Russian space launch vehicle, member of the Kosmos (rocket family), Kosmos rocket family. It was a liquid-fueled two-stage launch vehicle, first launched in 1967 and with over 420 s ...

carrier rockets, flying from sites 132 and 133 at the Plesetsk Cosmodrome. The prime function of Parus satellites was to provide location information for the Tsiklon-B navigation system. Parus satellites were produced by JSC Information Satellite Systems (formerly NPO PM), based on the KAUR-1 satellite bus. They had a mass of around , and a design life of 18–24 months. The satellites operated in

low Earth orbit A low Earth orbit (LEO) is an geocentric orbit, orbit around Earth with a orbital period, period of 128 minutes or less (making at least 11.25 orbits per day) and an orbital eccentricity, eccentricity less than 0.25. Most of the artificial object ...

s, typically with a perigee of about , an apogee of and 82.9°

inclination Orbital inclination measures the tilt of an object's orbit around a celestial body. It is expressed as the angle between a reference plane and the orbital plane or axis of direction of the orbiting object. For a satellite orbiting the Eart ...

. They were operated by the Russian Aerospace Defence Forces, and were used primarily for navigation, Store and forward communication, and to relay data from US-P satellites. Some of the navigation functions are believed to have been superseded by the

GLONASS GLONASS (, ; ) is a Russian satellite navigation system operating as part of a radionavigation-satellite service. It provides an alternative to Global Positioning System (GPS) and is the second navigational system in operation with global cove ...

system.

References

Communications satellites of the Soviet Union Navigation satellite constellations Navigation satellites of the Soviet Union Satellites using the KAUR bus Communications satellites of Russia Navigation satellites of Russia {{USSR-spacecraft-stub

See also

References