Article Posted on : - Sep 16, 2009

Baikonur space center. A File photo

MOSCOW (BNS): Russia will launch a new meteorological satellite on Wednesday after the previous launch was delayed by poor weather conditions at the Baikonur space center.

According to Russian news agency Ria Novosti, the launched is scheduled for 19:55 Moscow time (15:55 GMT) Wednesday.

Meteor-M weather satellite and five smaller satellites will be launched on board the Soyuz 2.1b carrier rocket from the Baikonur space centre in Kazakhstan.

Meteor-M weighs about 2,700 kilograms and has a service life of five years. It will orbit at an altitude of 830 kilometres.

The satellite is designed to monitor atmospheric and sea-surface temperatures, humidity, radiation, sea ice conditions, snow-cover, and clouds.

The satellite is the first to carry a “Severyanin-M” radar, which operates in the centimetre wave band to provide all-weather and round-the-clock data independent of natural illumination, the report said.

Russia plans to put a second Meteor-M satellite into orbit in the near future to ensure independent collection of meteorological data. Meteor-M satellites are a new generation of Russian meteorological satellites.