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Satellite Systems Chapter 18 REST-OF-WORLD (ROW) SATELLITE SYSTEMS For the longest time, space exploration was an exclusive club comprised of only two members, the United States and the Former Soviet Union. That has now changed due to a number of factors, among the more dominant being economics, advanced and improved technologies and national imperatives. Today, the number of nations with space programs has risen to over 40 and will continue to grow as the costs of spacelift and technology continue to decrease. RUSSIAN SATELLITE SYSTEMS The satellite section of the Russian In the post-Soviet era, Russia contin- space program continues to be predomi- ues its efforts to improve both its military nantly government in character, with and commercial space capabilities. most satellites dedicated either to civil/ These enhancements encompass both military applications (such as communi- orbital assets and ground-based space cations and meteorology) or exclusive support facilities. Russia has done some military missions (such as reconnaissance restructuring of its operating principles and targeting). A large portion of the regarding space. While these efforts have Russian space program is kept running by attempted not to detract from space-based launch services, boosters and launch support to military missions, economic sites, paid for by foreign commercial issues and costs have lead to a lowering companies. of Russian space-based capabilities in The most obvious change in Russian both orbital assets and ground station space activity in recent years has been the capabilities. decrease in space launches and corre- The influence of Glasnost on Russia's sponding payloads. Many of these space programs has been significant, but launches are for foreign payloads, not public announcements regarding space Russian. This can be attributed not only programs focus primarily on commercial to the recent breakup of the Soviet space promotion and budgetary justifica- Union, but also to the fact that Russian tion of the civil and commercial space satellites are gradually becoming more programs. Admissions of their military sophisticated and longer-lived. This in- use of space remain infrequent, and the creased operational efficiency is the mark economic measures reported by space of a more mature military space program program managers, appear to be designed which can reduce redundancy while ac- largely to avoid calls for further constraints. complishing its missions. Economic Despite restructuring throughout the problems throughout Russia have lead to Russian military, the objectives of the many problems in building and launching military space programs have not these new satellites. While Russia retains changed. Military space strategy still the surge launch and reconstitution capa- requires sufficient capability to provide bilities that are essential for military op- effective space-based support to terres- erations in crisis or conflict, money and trial military forces and the capability to lack of maintenance to ground facilities deny the use of space to other states. cast doubts on the viability of this former Maintaining this capability has, however, Soviet capability. proved extremely difficult in post-Soviet Russia. Space-Based Military Support Missions and Operations AU Space Primer 7/23/2003 18 - 1 An extensive array of spacecraft was from two separate cosmodromes; Ple- developed to support the Soviet, now setsk in Russia and Tyuratam in Kazakh- Russian, armed forces and political lead- stan. Due to the current political consid- ership. These satellite systems conduct erations between Russia and Kazakhstan, missions which include: imagery; elec- it is doubtful that Russia would launch an tronic and radar reconnaissance; launch ASAT system from Tyuratam. No Rus- detection and attack warning; ocean sur- sian ASAT has been launched since veillance and targeting; command, con- 1982. trol, and communications; geodetic, navi- Russia maintains a significant ASAT gational, and meteorological support; capability against low-earth and medium- anti-satellite (ASAT) operations; and earth orbit satellites, but capabilities military R&D. Reports in 1999 indicated against high altitude ones are limited. that Russia's military space forces had Future ASAT developments could in- barely the resources to meet the needs of clude new directed energy weapons or the nation's armed forces. direct-ascent non-nuclear interceptors. These systems, in turn, are supported In addition to the co-orbital intercep- by a tremendous infrastructure on the tor, Russia has additional potential ASAT ground, including the Ministry of De- capabilities. These capabilities include: fense (MOD) main space command, con- exo-atmospheric ABM missiles, located trol and telemetry complex near Moscow. around Moscow, that could be used Improvement, maintenance and refur- against satellites in near-earth orbit; at bishment of this infrastructure has con- least one ground-based laser, that may tinued despite a lower launch rate. Plans have sufficient power to damage some are ongoing to streamline the command unprotected satellites in near-earth orbits; and control systems, both civil and mili- and electronic warfare assets that proba- tary, to optimize the networks. bly would be used against satellites at all Russian sources have stated that more altitudes. Research and development of that 70 percent of the spacecraft and technologies applicable to more advanced ground facilities active in 1999 have out- ASAT systems continue. Areas of inves- lived their guaranteed service lives. tigation that appear to hold promise in- clude high energy laser, particle beam, Anti-satellite Systems radio frequency and kinetic technologies. The Russian military and political Photographic Reconnaissance leadership is fully aware of the value of military space systems. They have de- veloped the capability to disrupt and de- Photographic reconnaissance by satel- stroy the military space systems of poten- lite to gather high resolution images of tial enemies. Russia built a dedicated military installations and activities was so ASAT system that probably became op- clearly of value to both the East and West erational in 1971. In August 1983, Mos- that its development was one of the main cow announced a unilateral moratorium incentives in the early years of the space on the launch of ASAT weapons. How- era. Russia has both the older film return ever, Russia continued the testing of systems and newer digital, near-real-time, ASAT elements and procedures on the imaging systems. As with most of its ground, and the associated booster, the satellite programs, Russian capability SL-11. The SL-11 is also the same here has declined since the break-up of booster used to launch the ELINT Ocean the Soviet Union. During the 1980's the Reconnaissance Satellites (EORSATs) Soviet Union launched over 30 photo- and Radar Ocean Reconnaissance Satel- reconnaissance satellites, always having lites (RORSATs), although the last at least one imagery satellite in orbit. RORSAT launch was in 1988. The co- Russia currently has not been able to orbital interceptor has been launched maintain anything near this rate. In fact, AU Space Primer 7/23/2003 18 - 2 between September 28, 1996 and May 15, 1997, there were no Russian imagery satellites in orbit. Russia’s COSMOS film return “spy” satellites (Fig. 18-1) normally operate in low orbits that pass over geographic ar- eas of interest. These satellites are de- signed to withstand the heat of reentry so that they can be recovered. They are used mainly for military purposes, but do have civilian uses. A current commercial venture is using Fig. 18-2. Molniya 1 Communications Satellite The Ekran (Screen), Gorizont (Hori- zon) and Raduga (Rainbow) series, were the Soviet Union’s first generation of Fig. 18-1. Cosmos geosynchronous satellites. The Ruduga was the first system launched in 1975. older Russian film return satellites to This system is used primarily for military image areas of the earth for commercial and government communications chan- sales. The imagery is processed at a nels in addition to some domestic links. resolution of two meters and then digi- Launched in 1976, the Ekran was the tized and made available for sale via Soviet Union’s first civil geostationary Internet. This project is a joint Russian- communications satellite, providing di- US venture called SPIN-2 (SPace INfor- rect TV broadcast to Siberia. mation - 2 meter). Gorizont was the next geostationary system, first launched in 1978 (Fig. 18- Communication 3). This constellation is mainly used for TV distribution, telecommunications Russia operates several communica- services and maritime/mobile aeronauti- tions satellite systems. These satellites cal receivers in western regions of Russia operate in highly inclined, geostationary via the Moskva system. In design, this and low-earth orbits. system is very similar to the Ruduga. The Molniya (Lightning) satellite se- ries orbits in a highly inclined orbit that places it over the Russian landmass for approximately eight hours of its 12 hour orbit. With satellites placed 90 degrees apart, 24 hour communications are possi- ble. This series was first launched in 1965. The Molniya-1 series are primarily used for military and government com- munications (Fig. 18-2). The Molniya-3 series are for civil and domestic tele- communications as well as TV broad- casts. Fig. 18-3. Gorizont Communications Satellite AU Space Primer 7/23/2003 18 - 3 These systems are being replaced by Navigation newer generations
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