MOSCOW, October 4. /TASS/. Since the start of the year, Space Troops of the Russian Aerospace Forces have detected more than 1,500 launches of foreign and domestic launches of ballistic missiles and space rockets, the Russian Defense Ministry said on Wednesday.
"While fulfilling their combat duty of space monitoring, specialists of the Main Center for Reconnaissance of Situation in Space of the Russian Space Troops <…> have detected more than 1,500 launches of foreign and domestic ballistic missiles and space rockets. They oversaw the orbiting of more than 2,274 spacecraft," the ministry said.
The Space Troops also issued three warnings about dangerous approaches of space objects to satellites of Russia’s orbital constellations.
The troops also paid special attention to monitoring the condition and make-up of foreign satellite constellations.
The Space Troops Day is celebrated on October 4 in commemoration of the launch of the first PS-1 man-made earth satellite. The first space vehicle was launched on October 4, 1957, from Scientific Research Test Range No.5 (later named the Baikonur Cosmodrome) of the USSR Defense Ministry by the Sputnik rocket that was designed on the basis of the R-7 intercontinental ballistic missile.