Meteor-M No.1 was the first of the Russian

Meteor-M The Meteor spacecraft are weather observation satellites launched by the Soviet Union and Russia since the Cold War. The Meteor satellite series was initially developed during the 1960s. The Meteor satellites were designed to monitor atmospher ...

series of polar-orbiting

weather satellite A weather satellite or meteorological satellite is a type of Earth observation satellite that is primarily used to monitor the weather and climate of the Earth. Satellites are mainly of two types: polar orbiting (covering the entire Earth asyn ...

s. It was launched on a

Soyuz-2.1b Soyuz2 (; GRAU index: 14A14) is a Russian expendable medium-lift launch vehicle and the seventh major iteration of the Soyuz rocket family. Compared to its predecessors, Soyuz-2 features significant upgrades, including improved engines and ...

rocket with a

Fregat Fregat () is an upper stage developed by NPO Lavochkin for universal compatibility with a wide range of medium- and heavy-lift launch vehicles. Fregat has been used primarily with Soyuz and Zenit rockets, and entered operational service in ...

upper stage on 17 September 2009. Meteor-M No.1 was the designated replacement for Meteor-3M No.1, and had a design life of 5 years. In November 2014, Russian officials announced the termination of the mission after a failure of the onboard attitude control system. Since its termination, the satellite has been heard on radio by amateur radio operators, even transmitting pictures of the Earth.

References

{{Orbital launches in 2009 Spacecraft launched in 2009 Weather satellites of Russia Spacecraft launched by Soyuz-2 rockets

See also

References