Baikonur to launch the second Moscow State University sputnik named after St. Tatiana
Moscow, September 15, Interfax – Soyuz 2 launch vehicle will launch to the orbit Universitetsky Tatiana 2 minor spacecraft on Tuesday from the Baikonur cosmodrome.
Tatiana 2 scientific-research sputnik is the Moscow State University’s project named after the holy protector of the University and Russian students. It was realized under auspices of the Federal Space Agency in frames of the top-priority national project Obrazovaniye (Russian for education – IF). Its aim is to carry out joint scientific-research and experimental construction works, press service of the Russian Rectors’ Union has told Interfax-Religion on Tuesday.
Tatiana 2 is to study a new phenomenon in the level of dozens of kilometers, energetic flashes of light in ultraviolet diapason, the nature of which is not clear yet. Staff members of the University’s Mechanics and Mathematics Faculty greatly contributed in Tatiana 2 development. Thanks to their efforts, the sputnik is equipped with new on-board navigation system that does not have any analogues.
Tatiana 1 was launched on January 22, 2004 on the eve of the University’s 250th anniversary. For years of its work, it successfully studied circumterrestrial space, registered space flow of electrons, protons and alpha particles and made measurements of ultraviolet radiation of the atmosphere.
