Plesetsk Cosmodrome

Location of the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in Russia

The cosmodrome in 2015

A Zyklon 3 rocket takes off in Plesezk, August 15, 1991

The Plesetsk Cosmodrome ( Russian Космодро́м «Плесе́цк» , also transcribed Plesezk or Plesetsk ) is a spaceport in the Arkhangelsk Oblast in northwestern Russia .

location

The cosmodrome is located about 800 kilometers north of Moscow and 180 kilometers south of the Oblast capital Arkhangelsk in the middle of boreal coniferous forests ( taiga ). The cosmodrome is located in the Plesezki rajon within the Mirny district ( gorodskoi okrug Mirny ). Around 20 kilometers southwest of the cosmodrome is the closed city of Mirny, the administrative center of the urban district. The eponymous urban-type settlement Plesetsk is like Mirny south of the cosmodrome, on the Vologda - Arkhangelsk railway line .

history

The Plesetsk Cosmodrome was initially set up in the late 1950s as an Angara base for military ICBMs . Initially, a unit of the first R-7 missile type was stationed there.

With the launch of the Vostok-2 rocket on March 17, 1966, the Plesetsk Cosmodrome began operations. Since then it has mainly been used to launch military satellites, such as reconnaissance satellites . In addition, civil satellites are launched into polar orbits from Plesezk. Plesetsk did not carry out manned rocket launches . Most of the Russian satellites were launched from Plesetsk. A launch pad for the Angara missiles , which were launched for the first time in July and December 2014 , was also built.

In the course of the construction of the cosmodrome, the nearby town of Mirny was created as a residence for the military and civil servants. In the forests north of the cosmodrome so numerous rocket stages fell that in the 1990s, when the state surveillance of the area was barely noticeable after the collapse of the Soviet Union, they were often used by hunters among the inhabitants of the area for the purpose of recycling the scrap were collected. They made sleds and boats for their own use, and they could sell the rest for good money.

The ESA satellites Sentinel-3 A (2016), Sentinel-5 P (2017) and Sentinel-3B (2018) were launched from Plesetsk with Rockot launch vehicles as part of the GMES Earth observation program.

Accidents

On June 26, 1973, nine people were killed in the explosion of a ready -to- launch Kosmos 3M rocket.

On March 18, 1980, 48 people died in a Vostok 2M missile explosion.

On October 15, 2002, a Soyuz U rocket exploded seconds after launch. A soldier was killed by the blast in a neighboring building.

On November 9, 2013, two soldiers were killed and three others injured in an accident while cleaning a fuel tank filled with nitrous oxide .

Starting places

The following launch sites at the Plesezk Cosmodrome have been or are being used for orbital launchers . The first number denotes a launch complex and the second a launch ramp located there.

ramp	rocket	Usage period	Remarks
16/2	Molnija Soyuz-U	1981-2007 1983-2012
32/1 32/2	Cyclone-3	1981-1992
35/1	Angara 1.2 Angara A5	2014!since 2014 since 2014	active
41/1 43/3 43/4	R-7A Wostok Woschod Soyuz-M Molnija Soyuz-U Soyuz-2.1	1965–1967 1966–1983 1966–1975 1971 1970–2001 1973–2002 since 2010	43/3 active 43/4 active
132/1 132/2	Cosmos 3M	1967-2010
133/1	Cosmos 2I	1967-2002
133/3	Cosmos 3M Rockot	1985-1994 2002-2019
158	begin	1993-1995