Foton-M No.2

Foton-M No.2
Mission type Microgravity research
Operator Roskosmos
ESA
COSPAR ID 2005-020A[1]
SATCAT no. 28686
Mission duration 16 days[2]
Spacecraft properties
Spacecraft type Foton-M
Launch mass 600 kilograms (1,300 lb)
Payload mass 385 kilograms (849 lb)
Start of mission
Launch date 31 May 2004, 12:00:00 (2004-05-31UTC12Z) UTC
Rocket Soyuz-U
Launch site Baikonur 1/5
End of mission
Landing date 16 June 2004 (2004-06-17)
Orbital parameters
Reference system Geocentric
Regime Low Earth
Eccentricity 0.00308
Perigee 261 kilometres (162 mi)
Apogee 302 kilometres (188 mi)
Inclination 63º
Period 93 minutes

Foton-M No.2 was an unmanned Foton-M spacecraft which carried a European payload for the European Space Agency (ESA). It was placed into orbit by a Russian Soyuz-U rocket launched at 12:00 UTC on 20 June 2005 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan by the Russian Space Agency (RKA). The Foton-M No.2 mission was a replacement for the failed Foton-M No.1 mission, which was lost in a launch failure on 15 October 2002.

The spacecraft carried a 600-kilogram (1,300 lb) payload, including 385 kilograms (849 lb) of experiments; consisting of 39 experiments in fluid physics, biology, material science, meteoritics, radiation dosimetry and exobiology (BIOPAN-5). Some of the experiments were designed by the ESA's student programme.

One notable experiment tested the ability of lichen to survive in space. It was successful, as the lichen survived over 14 days of exposure to space.

References

  1. ↑ "SPACEWARN Bulletin, SPX-619". NASA. Archived from the original on 2009-05-10.
  2. ↑ "European experiments back on Earth with successful conclusion of Foton-M2 mission". ESA. 16 June 2005.


This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.