ELEKTRO-L 2

Elektro-L 2 (also cataloged as Elektro-L No.2, COSPAR designator 2015-074A, NORAD ID 41105) is a Russian geostationary meteorological satellite operated by Roscosmos. Launched on 10 December 2015, it represents the second flight unit in the Elektro-L series of second-generation Russian geosynchronous weather satellites. The spacecraft was constructed by NPO Lavochkin, one of Russia's most established spacecraft manufacturers, and it occupies a geostationary orbit approximately 35,800 kilometers above the Earth's equator. As of the time of writing, the satellite remains in orbit and has not undergone any recorded decay or reentry.

Mission and Purpose

The Elektro-L series exists to provide Russia and its partner agencies with continuous meteorological surveillance from geostationary altitude. From this vantage point, a satellite can observe the same broad swath of the Earth's surface at all times, making it particularly well-suited for tracking the development and movement of large-scale weather systems, monitoring cloud cover, sea surface temperatures, and other atmospheric phenomena that ground-based networks cannot capture with equivalent continuity or spatial coverage.

Elektro-L No.2 follows in the footsteps of Elektro-L No.1, which became the first of the second-generation series when it launched in 2011. Where the first spacecraft established the baseline design and operational framework for the new generation, the second introduced several refinements intended to address limitations that had been identified through operational experience. Among the improvements carried into No.2 were upgraded star-tracker systems — the sensors a satellite uses to determine its orientation in space with high precision — as well as enhancements to the onboard radio complex that handles communications and data relay. The satellite's primary imaging instrument, known as the MSU-GS multispectral scanner, also underwent additional testing and calibration before flight, with a particular focus on improving its performance in infrared imaging channels. Infrared capability is especially important for meteorological missions because it enables observations at night and allows forecasters to infer temperature profiles and moisture content in ways that visible-light imagery alone cannot support.

The specific operational status of the satellite — whether it is currently returning data, in a reduced-activity mode, or serving some other function — is not recorded in the public catalog entry for this object. Russia's hydrometeorological satellite operations have historically been coordinated with national forecasting services, and Elektro-series imagery has been used to support both civilian weather forecasting and broader Earth observation objectives.

Orbit and Tracking

Elektro-L 2 occupies a near-circular geostationary orbit. Tracking data indicates an apogee of 35,800 km and a perigee of 35,789 km, reflecting an extremely small eccentricity that keeps the orbit very close to perfectly circular. The orbital inclination is recorded at 6.7°, which represents a slight departure from the true equatorial plane — a common characteristic in aging or operationally maintained geostationary satellites, where inclination tends to grow over time unless active station-keeping maneuvers are regularly performed to counteract the gravitational influences of the Moon and Sun.

The orbital period of 1,436.1 minutes is essentially synchronous with the Earth's rotation, meaning the satellite completes one orbit in just over 23 hours and 56 minutes — matching, to a close approximation, the time it takes the Earth to complete one rotation relative to the stars. This is the defining property of geostationary orbit: it allows the satellite to remain effectively stationary over a fixed point on the Earth's surface when inclination and eccentricity are held near zero. The modest inclination currently observed causes the satellite's ground track to trace a small figure-eight pattern (known as an analemma) rather than remaining at a single fixed longitude, but this effect is small enough that the satellite still covers a broadly consistent portion of the Earth's disk.

From a tracking perspective, NORAD catalog entry 41105 provides the authoritative reference for this object. The international designator 2015-074A identifies it as the primary payload of the 74th orbital launch of 2015.

Design and Operator

NPO Lavochkin, the Russian aerospace enterprise responsible for designing and building Elektro-L No.2, has a long history of constructing both planetary probes and Earth-orbiting spacecraft. The organization — whose full name is the Lavochkin Scientific and Production Association — has been a key supplier of complex spacecraft to the Russian and Soviet space programs for decades, with a portfolio extending from interplanetary missions to geostationary platforms such as the Elektro-L series.

The Elektro-L spacecraft platform is understood to be a substantial three-axis stabilized satellite designed to maintain precise pointing at the Earth's disk for continuous imaging. The second-generation design incorporated advances over earlier Soviet-era Elektro satellites, moving toward a more capable and reliable bus suited for long-duration geostationary operations. The star-tracker upgrades on No.2 reflect an emphasis on attitude determination accuracy — critical for ensuring that images from the MSU-GS instrument are correctly geolocated and can be compared consistently over time.

Roscosmos, the Russian state space corporation, serves as the operator of Elektro-L 2. Roscosmos oversees a broad portfolio of civil and governmental space activities, including remote sensing, navigation, and human spaceflight. Within the meteorological satellite domain, the Elektro-L constellation is intended to complement Russia's other Earth observation assets, contributing to a national capacity for weather monitoring from geostationary altitude that does not depend on data from foreign satellite operators.

The mass of the spacecraft is not specified in the publicly available catalog record for this object.

Significance and Context

The Elektro-L program represents Russia's most significant effort in recent decades to establish a modern, capable geostationary meteorological satellite capability. Earlier Russian and Soviet weather satellite programs, including the original Elektro series, dated from an era when satellite technology and sensor performance were considerably more limited. The second-generation Elektro-L satellites, of which No.2 is the second flight example, reflect a substantial investment in restoring and modernizing this national capability.

The launch of Elektro-L No.2 in December 2015 continued the gradual reconstitution of Russia's geostationary meteorological satellite presence. The improvements introduced in No.2 — particularly in attitude control hardware and infrared imaging performance — were meaningful incremental steps in producing consistent, high-quality meteorological imagery. High-performing infrared channels are not merely a technical milestone; they have direct operational consequences for forecasting, enabling the detection of storm systems and frontal boundaries that might be ambiguous or invisible in visible-wavelength data alone.

For the international meteorological community, Russian geostationary satellites occupy orbital positions and cover geographic regions — including large portions of northern Eurasia and the Arctic periphery — that are not consistently covered by the geostationary constellations operated by the United States, European Union, Japan, or China. The availability of data from this longitude arc matters for global numerical weather prediction models, which depend on comprehensive spatial coverage to produce accurate forecasts.

Elektro-L No.2 remains in orbit, and no deorbit or retirement announcement is reflected in the catalog. The satellite's continued presence in geostationary orbit places it among the population of operational or potentially operational assets at that altitude, pending public confirmation of its current operational status.

Observing Elektro-L 2

Geostationary satellites like Elektro-L 2 are generally not practical targets for casual visual observation. At an altitude of approximately 35,800 km, they are far more distant than low Earth orbit spacecraft, and they do not drift visibly across the sky from a fixed observer's perspective — instead appearing nearly stationary relative to the stars. This makes them very difficult to distinguish from background stars without optical aid and specialized tracking knowledge.

With a telescope, patient observers in the right geographic location can detect geostationary satellites as faint, essentially stationary points of light. The satellite's apparent magnitude will depend on factors including its physical size, surface reflectivity, and the angle of solar illumination — none of which are specified in the public catalog record for this object. Observers interested in attempting such observations should consult real-time tracking tools, which can provide current positional data derived from the latest available two-line element sets for NORAD ID 41105.