Russian 'Kobalt' Spy Satellite Disappears

http://www.kommersant.ru/doc.html?docId=540572 (Russian)

http://www.kommersant.com/page.asp?id=540572 (English)

Russian Spy Satellite has Disappeared
[21 Jan 2005]
[by Ivan Safronov]


Yesterday, Kommersant learned that the Defense Ministry had still not been
able to find the Cobalt spy satellite, which was guided off the orbit ahead
of time the night of January 9th. If the search operation, which will last
until the end of this week, is not successful, the satellite will be
announced missing. A specially founded commission is to discover the causes
of the incident.

The improved design of Cobalt spy satellite (Cosmos-2410) was launched from
Plesetsk on September 24, 2004, for testing purposes. However, it stayed on
the orbit only for 107 days, while the old satellites of this series lasted
at least 120 days. The head of the space forces press service Colonel
Aleksey Kuznetsov told Interfax-AVN, that the reports about Cosmos-2410
termination of work before the appointed time were not true: according to
him, the satellite fulfilled its test program. "However, on the night of
January 9, the explorer was guided to land for "operational reasons,"
Kuznetsov said without specifying what they were.

According to Kommersant information, one of the reasons for the satellite's
early landing could have been the malfunction of the its flight control
system, which became evident after the satellite had already orbited the
earth for half of the designated term (Cobalt was making uncharacteristic
maneuvers, fixed by U.S space radars). The malfunction was fixed, however,
when it was detected again, a decision was made to land the space vehicle
ahead of time. However, before the satellite came off the orbit in order to
land at the polygon in the Orenburg steppe, two large fragments detached
from it, the fact also fixed by the Americans (which had never happened to
Kobalt before).

However, that was not the extent of troubles with the satellite. Kommersant
learned that the search team was not able to find the explorer in the area
of its supposed landing. It could not have landed on foreign territory - in
this case it would have been simply exploded, and there would not be any
talks of guided descent. That is why the search may be stopped before the
end of this week, and in case of its failure, the satellite will be
announced missing.

The reason of its disappearing must be established by a commission, founded
at the Samara rocket-space center CSKB-Progress, which designed the
satellite. The spece vehicle carried a photographic film with footage taken
at the last stage of its flight (two other films had been sent to Earth in
special capsules earlier, and any further launching of Cobalts is impossible
before reasons of the incident are fully investigated.

According to the Defense Ministry, the satellite, which had lost two
fragments before landing, could have burned in the dense layers of
atmosphere, or has crashed into the earth due to its parachute system
failure. If the latter is true, the spacecraft would have been destroyed by
the collision, and entered deeply into the earth, covered by a one-meter
layer of snow, that is why it is practically impossible to find it now. By
the way, in February 2000, the search team failed to find Fregat
acceleration module. The two-week search was stopped in hopes that the
module would be discovered after the snow melted. However, it was never
found: specialists at the Lavochkin Research and Production Association
think that most likely the local residents, who had found it, sawed it in
pieces and turned it to scrap metal recycling.