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Spektr-R

Tentatively scheduled for launch the year after Spektr-X-gamma, is Spektr-R, also known as Radioastron, with an objective of establishing a Very Long Baseline Interferometer (VLBI) between the spacecraft and large radio telescopes on Earth. Spektr-R will carry a 10-m diameter radio telescope tuned to receive frequencies of 0.3, 1.6, 5.0, and 22 GHz (Figure 5.37) in an in a highly elliptical, 28-hr Earth orbit. The Ukrairainian Yevpatoriya Deep Space Tracking center with its 70-m diameter radio telescope will serve as the primary spacecraft control facility, while smaller 25-m and 32-m antennas in the former USSR will assist with spacecraft communications and 70-m antennas at Ussuriysk and in Uzbekistan will become part of the VLBI. The US Deep Space Network will also play a major role in satellite tracking and data collection.

The scientific payload mass will amount to about 1.5 metric tons, including the 700-kg deployable antenna. Early plans for a more ambitious Radioastron program involving six spacecraft over a period of 15 years have at least temporarily been shelved. The launch of Spektr-R, once envisioned as early as 1991, is now set for 1997 (References 298-307).

298. Radioastron, Ground-Space Radio Interferometer for Astrophvsics, Institute of Space Research, October 1986.

299. V.V. Andreyanov, et al, Soviet Astronautics, September-October 1986, pp. 504-507.

300. Radioastron, Institute of Space Research, 1987.

301. B. Konovalov, Izvestiya, 10 April 1988, p. 2.

302. V. V. Andreyanov, Zemlya I Vselennaya, January-February 1989, pp. 13-17.

303. I. Fejes, "Orbit Determination Accuracy Improvement By Space-VLBI Observables as Tracking Data", IAG General Meeting, August 1989.

304. A. Lawler, "U.S., Soviet Astronomy Cooperation Expanded", Space News, 12-18 March 1990, pp. 1, 21.

305. N. Layevich, NTR Tribuna, January 1990, p. 3.

306. Pravda Vostoka, 5 November 1991, p.1.

307. V. I. Altunin and K. H. Robinett, "Mission Operations System for Russian Space Very-long-Baseline Interferometry Mission", Paper IAF-92-547, 43rd Congress of the International Astronautical Federation, August-September 1992.

Sources and Resources

• Adapted from: Europe and Asia in Space 1993-1994, Nicholas Johnson and David Rodvold [Kaman Sciences / Air Force Phillips Laboratory]

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