Newly launched Russian Kosmos satellites likely to have inspection role

摘要

ASoyuz-2-1v rocket with a Volga upper stage was launched from the Plesetsk cosmodrome in northwest Russia on 10 July 2019, carrying four satellites for the Russian Ministry of Defence. The satellites were announced as Kosmos-2535, 2536, 2537, and 2538. According to a statement from the Ministry of Defence, the satellites are intended to "study the effects of artificial and natural space factors on Russian satellites and for calibration of radars". The satellites' orbital parameters are very similar to those of a trio of satellites launched in June 2017 and catalogued as Kosmos-2519, 2521, and 2523. Various openly available procurement documents, technical articles, and patents made it possible to identify the first two of these with a high degree of certainty.