On November 25 at 01:09 UTC, a Russian Soyuz 2.1b/Fregat launched from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome carrying the Tundra 5L satellite for the Russian Ministry of Defense. 

After several burns of the Fregat upper stage, the Tundra satellite was deployed into its Molniya orbit stretching from about 1,600 kilometers to about 35,000 kilometers at an inclination of 63.4 degrees to the equator. Tundra is the latest generation of missile early-warning satellite for the Russian government. The satellite has a powerful infrared telescope for this mission.

The satellite’s highly elongated Molnyia orbit was chosen because it lingers for a long time over the Northern Hemisphere before racing through the other parts of its orbit. The extreme north isn’t accessible from geostationary satellites, and this weird orbit is the next best thing for communications, weather, and, well, spy sats. The U.S. positions intelligence satellites in the same orbit to spy on the Russians. One more Tundra satellite will be launched next year, completing the constellation.

More Information

Tundra info page (Gunter’s Space Page)

Launch video