The Cosmos 2372 military satellite was launched by a Zenit 2 booster from Baikonur on 25 September, marking the 25th successful flight out of 33 launches of the Zenit 2 since 1985, the 22nd successful Russian launch of the year and the 20th from the Baikonur cosmodrome.
The satellite, operating in a 364km (226m) by 220km, 64.8° inclination orbit, is believed to be a new class of reconnaissance spacecraft called Enisei. The Enisei is a more advanced version of the Orlets satellite, which returned high resolution images aboard 22 recoverable re-entry capsules.
Meanwhile, Russian launcher company Kosmotras launched a Dnepr booster from the Baikonur Cosmodrome on 26 September, carrying five international minisatellites into a 650km orbit. The satellites were Malaysia's Tiungsat, Italy's MegSat 1 and UniSat, and SaudiSat A and B from Saudi Arabia. The Dnepr has been developed from the SS-20 R-36M Satan missile, of which about 150 are available for conversion into satellite launchers.
Source: Flight International
