2023-06-29 | Russia Launches Hydrometeorological Satellite Hosting Search-and-Rescue Payload

The Russian Federation successfully launched on 27 June from the Vostochny Cosmodrome the Meteor-M No.2-3 satellite carrying a Cospas search-and-rescue (SAR) payload. The satellite will be in a sun-synchronous low-altitude Earth orbit (LEO), with the SAR payload designated as Cospas-15. The launch was the first use of a new version of the Fregat-M second stage of the launch vehicle. Nominally, six months are allocated to spacecraft on-orbit testing and it is specified to have a minimum five-year lifetime.