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Soyuz launches a military satellite

A Soyuz-2-1a rocket launched a classified payload, believed to be the fourth Bars-M cartography satellite. The vehicle lifted off from the Plesetsk, north of Moscow, on March 23, 2023.

Previous chapter: Bars-M3 mission


Insertion

The expected ground track of the ascent trajectory for Soyuz rockets delivering Bars-M satellites from Plesetsk into an orbit with an inclination 93 degrees to the Equator. After around nine minutes of the powered flight, the satellite is expected to reach orbit over the Arctic Ocean and cross Canadian territory at the beginning of its first revolution around the planet.


The 4th Bars-M mission at a glance:

Launch date and time
2023 March 23, 09:40 Moscow Time (actual)
Launch vehicle
Launch site
Payload
Bars-M No. 4, Kosmos-2567
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Fourth Bars-M lifts off

According to the Roskosmos State Corporation, a Soyuz-2-1a rocket lifted off on March 23, 2023, at 09:40 Moscow Time (2:40 a.m. EDT, 06:03 UTC) from Plesetsk and successfully delivered a spacecraft for the Ministry of Defense.

The standard statement said that the spacecraft had reached its planned orbit and was tracked by ground assets of the Titov Chief Testing Center of the Russian Air and Space Forces, VKS. The spacecraft maintained stable communications with ground control and its systems functioned nominally, the statement said.

The newly launched satellite was officially identified as Kosmos-2567.

Within hours after the launch the US Space Force catalogued two objects associated with the launch representing the spacecraft and the third stage of the Soyuz launch vehicle:

ID
NORAD ID
Orbital period
Inclination
Perigee
Apogee
2023-040A
55978
92.95 minutes
97.64 degrees
338 kilometers
499 kilometers
2023-040B
55979
92.92 minutes
97.64 degrees
337 kilometers
498 kilometers

The official announcement about the launch from RKTs Progress said that the both the launch vehicle and the spacecraft had been developed by the company, however that sentence was quickly redacted to drop the mention of the spacecraft developer.

By March 26, 2023, Bars-M4 boosted its perigee as predicted, while the orbit of the upper stage, which delivered it into space, was slowly decaying:

ID
NORAD ID
Orbital period
Inclination
Perigee
Apogee
2023-040A (Cosmos-2567)
55978
93.65 minutes
97.64 degrees
408 kilometers
499 kilometers
2023-040B (Stage III)
55979
92.92 minutes
97.64 degrees
339 kilometers
494 kilometers

 

 

The article, graphics and illustrations by Anatoly Zak; Last update: November 22, 2023

Page editor: Alain Chabot

All rights reserved

insider content

m4

Bars-M4 lifts off on March 23, 2023. Credit: Russian Ministry of Defense


Bars-M

Bars-M in orbit.