Soviet-era military satellite Kosmos-1151 burns up in atmosphere - Defense Ministry
MOSCOW. Aug 5 (Interfax-AVN) - Russia's Main Space Monitoring Center has confirmed that the satellite Kosmos-1151 has been fell from orbit, said spokesman for the Russian Aerospace Defense Forces Col. Alexei Zolotukhin.
"The satellite almost completely burned up in the dense layers of the atmosphere over Antarctic at 7:18 p.m. on August 4," Zolotukhin told Interfax on Tuesday, citing experts.
The data received by the Main Space Monitoring Center on August 5 from specialized radars, optical-electronic and laser-optical means of the Russian space monitoring system has confirmed the absence of the Kosmos-1151 satellite in orbit, he said.
The Soviet-era Kosmos-1151 satellite was launched on January 23 1980 from the Plesetsk cosmodrome with a Tsyklon-3 carrier rocket. Its active service life is six months.
The Main Space Monitoring Center provides information support to efforts to deal with threats coming from and arising in space and is responsible for unhindered deployment and operation of groups of Russian satellites and also for assessing threats connected with space debris growth in outer space.
Its other major task is to keep the Main Catalogue of Space Objects, as well as orbital measuring, radar, optical and specialized data about man-made space objects flying at an altitude of 120 to 40,000 kilometers.
