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). 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. 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.
References
External links
Monitor-E site by NTs OMZ