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Russia deorbits decommissioned military satellite

The satellite was a part of Russia’s Oko missile attack early warning system

MOSCOW, January 10. /TASS/. The Russian Kosmos-2430 military satellite excluded from the orbital grouping in 2012 was deorbited in the morning of January 5, after which it burnt up over the Atlantic Ocean, Russia’s Aerospace Force Command reported on Thursday.

"The Russian Kosmos-2430 military satellite was deorbited in a planned manner at 09:48 Moscow time on January 5. The satellite fully burnt up in the dense layers of the atmosphere over the Atlantic Ocean at an altitude of about 100 km. The on-duty teams of the Russian Aerospace Force’s Space Troops controlled the satellite’s deorbiting at all the trajectory sections," the Command said in a statement.

"The space vehicle was launched in 2007 and in 2012 it was excluded from the orbital grouping of the Russian Federation after using up its potential," the statement said.

The data on the deorbiting of the Russian Kosmos-2430 satellite was earlier posted on the website of the North American Aerospace Defense Command.

The Russian Kosmos-2430 satellite was part of Russia’s Oko missile attack early warning system. The satellite was delivered into orbit by the Molniya-M carrier rocket from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in north Russia on October 23, 2007 to monitor the launches of intercontinental ballistic missiles from US territory.