Interkosmos 22, more commonly known as Bulgaria 1300 ( bg, Интеркосмос 22-България 1300), was

Bulgaria Bulgaria (; bg, България, Bǎlgariya), officially the Republic of Bulgaria,, ) is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern flank of the Balkans, and is bordered by Romania to the north, Serbia and North Macedo ...

's first

artificial satellite A satellite or artificial satellite is an object intentionally placed into orbit in outer space. Except for passive satellites, most satellites have an electricity generation system for equipment on board, such as solar panels or radioisoto ...

. It was named after the 1300th anniversary of the foundation of the Bulgarian state. It was designed to study the ionosphere and magnetosphere of the Earth.

Description

The satellite was developed by the

Bulgarian Space Agency The Space Research and Technology Institute ( bg, Институт за космически изследвания и технологии, translit=Institut za kosmicheski izsledvaniya i tekhnologii) of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences is a prim ...

around the "

Meteor A meteoroid () is a small rocky or metallic body in outer space. Meteoroids are defined as objects significantly smaller than asteroids, ranging in size from grains to objects up to a meter wide. Objects smaller than this are classified as mi ...

" bus, provided by the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

as part of the

Interkosmos Interkosmos (russian: Интеркосмос) was a Soviet space program, designed to help the Soviet Union's allies with crewed and uncrewed space missions. The program was formed in April 1967 in Moscow. All members of the program from USSR ...

program. Assembly took place in Bulgaria, and the spacecraft was launched from

Plesetsk Plesetsk (russian: Плесе́цк) is an urban locality (a work settlement) and the administrative center of Plesetsky District, Arkhangelsk Oblast, Russia, situated about northeast of Moscow and south of Arkhangelsk. Municipally, it is ...

in 13:35 local time on 7 August 1981. During that same year the Bulgarian government organized a massive celebration to commemorate the 1300th anniversary of the country's founding. Bulgaria 1300 was successfully inserted in a near-polar orbit. The outer skin of the spacecraft, including the solar panels, is coated with a conducting material in order to allow the proper measurement of electric fields and low energy plasma. Power is provided by the two solar panels, which generate 2 kW of electricity. A rechargeable battery pack is used as an energy supply when the spacecraft is in an eclipse period. Gathered data is stored on two tape recorders, each with a capacity of 60 megabits. The main transmitter radiates 10 W in the 130-MHz band. No operational limit was planned. The spacecraft operated for two years and then data transmission stopped. In the spring of 2016, however, it became clear that the satellite was active. It is not expected to reenter until approximately the year 2550.

Equipment

The satellite contains a large set of scientific devices, designed and built in Bulgaria: Iesp

* Ion Drift Meter combined with a Retarding Potential Analyzer; * Spherical Electrostatic Ion Trap (SEIT); * Cylindrical Langmuir probe; * Double spherical electron temperature probes; * Low-Energy Electron-Proton Electrostatic Analyzer Array in 3 orthogonal directions * Ion Energy-Mass Composition Analyzers * Wavelength Scanning UV Photometer * Proton Solid-State Telescope * Visible Airglow Photometers * Triaxial Spherical Vector Electric Field Probes * Triaxial Fluxgate Magnetometer

References

{{Orbital launches in 1981 Satellites of Bulgaria Satellites orbiting Earth First artificial satellites of a country Bulgaria–Soviet Union relations Spacecraft launched in 1981 1981 in the Soviet Union 1981 in Bulgaria Derelict satellites orbiting Earth

Description

Equipment

See also

References