Jun 5 1975
From The Space Library
The U.S.S.R. launched comsat Molniya I-30 and France's Sret 2 on a single booster from Plesetsk. Molniya I-30 entered elliptical orbit with a 39 876-km apogee, 448-km perigee, 712.2-min period, and 62.8° inclination. Sret 2 entered orbit with a 40 824-km apogee, 512-km perigee, 737.8-min period, and 62;8° inclination.
Tass reported that Molniya I-30 would ensure long-range telephone, telegraph, and radio communications as well as transmit TV programs to Orbita network stations in extreme northern Siberia, the Far East, and central Asia.
Sret 2 (Satellite de Recherches et d'Environment Technique), according to Tass, would study the efficiency of a radiation system of thermal protection in outer space. It was the second of three spacecraft in a program of Soviet-French cooperation. Sret 1, launched 4 April 1972, had studied the characteristics of solar batteries for space operations and the degeneration of solar cells from cosmic-ray exposure in the Van Allen Belt. (GSFC Wkly SSR, 5-11 June 75; Tass, FBIS-Sov, 17 June 75, U1; A&A 1972, 128)
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