Monitor-E

Monitor-E was the first Russian satellite of a fleet of newly designed, small Earth observing satellites. It was launched 26 August 2005 at 18:34 UTC from Plesetsk Cosmodrome, and placed in a Sun-synchronous orbit of 524 by 544 km (326 by 338 mi).

Monitor-E

Mission type	Earth observation
Operator	NTs OMZ[1]
COSPAR ID	2005-032A
SATCAT no.	28822
Website	eng.ntsomz.ru/ks_dzz/satellites/monitor_E
Mission duration	Planned: 5 years Final: 2 years, 4 months, 25 days
Spacecraft properties
Bus	Yakhta[2]
Manufacturer	Khrunichev[2]
Launch mass	750 kg (1,650 lb)[2]
Payload mass	270 kg (600 lb)
Start of mission
Launch date	26 August 2005, 18:34 (2005-08-26UTC18:34) UTC[3]
Rocket	Rokot/Briz-KM[2]
Launch site	Plesetsk Site 133/3[2]
Contractor	Eurockot Launch Services
End of mission
Disposal	Decommissioned
Deactivated	21 January 2008 (2008-01-22)[1][4]
Decay date	22 September 2020
Orbital parameters
Reference system	Geocentric
Regime	Sun-synchronous
Eccentricity	0.00145
Perigee altitude	524 km (326 mi)
Apogee altitude	544 km (338 mi)
Inclination	97.6°
Period	95.3 minutes
Epoch	26 August 2005, 14:34 UTC[3]
Instruments PSA Pnchromatic imager (Gamma-L) RDSA Multispectral imager (Gamma-C)

The satellite was decommissioned 21 January 2008 and decayed from orbit 22 September 2020.

Design

Monitor-E had a set of remote sensing devices. They were intended to make maps of the Earth's surface to be used for ecological monitoring and charting geological features. It was built by the Khrunichev State Research and Production Space Center.

A mock-up of Monitor-E (COSPAR 2003-031A) was launched 30 June 2003 aboard Rokot rocket.

Specifications

Sensors

• 8 m panchromatic (0.51-0.85 μm), swath width of not less 90 km
• 20–40 m multispectral (0.54-0.59/0.63-0.68/0.79-0.90 μm), swath width of not less than 160 km

Onboard storage

• 2 × 200 gigabit capacity

Data communications

• Transmission speeds of 15.36/61.44/122.88 Mbit/s

Orbit

• Altitude: 524 × 544 km (326 × 338 mi) - 97.6 degree Sun-synchronous inclination

Spacecraft

• Planned active life: 5 years
• Orientation precision: 0.1 degrees
• Stabilization precision: 0.001 degrees/s
• Average daily power consumption: 450 W
• Mass: 750 kg (1,650 lb)

Communications problems

After launch, communications with Monitor-E was initially difficult to establish, but a few hours later it was successfully contacted and control was established.^[5] On 19 October 2005 new problems developed and no communication was possible since then. Later on communications were restored and photographs from both cameras were published on 30 November 2005.