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Proton to launch fifth Elektro-L weather satellite After a nearly three-year break, a Proton rocket is slated to fly again with the Elektro-L No. 5 meteorological satellite from Baikonur in Kazakhstan on Feb. 12, 2026. The mission marks the last use of the Block DM-03 space tug on Proton, reserving its role solely as an upper stage for the Angara-5 rocket.
Elektro-L No. 5 mission at a glance:
Elektro L5 satellite and a hitchhiker payload After the development of the first three Elektro-L weather satellites in the 2000s, NPO Lavochkin proceeded with the construction of two additional satellites — Elektro-L4 and L5, initially aimed for launch in the first half of the 2010s. However, various issues with the original batch, as well as financial problems and the lack of access to necessary electronic components significantly delayed the program. At the time of the Elektro-L2 launch in December 2015, the fourth and fifth Elektro-L satellites were promised to fly in 2019 and 2020 respectively. By 2017, the launch of Elektro No. 5 was postponed until 2022. In October 2018, NPO Lavochkin said that the fourth and fifth spacecraft would have to be "delivered" to the launch site in November 2021 and 2022, respectively, probably implying that their actual launches could shift to 2022 and 2023. In reality, the fourth satellite was ultimately launched in February 2023, while the fifth spacecraft slipped to the end of 2025. After first two launches of Elektro-L on the Ukrainian-built Zenit rocket, the annexation of Crimea forced the switch of follow-on satellites to the Proton, which was significantly oversized for this particular payload. After first two solo launches on Proton, the Elektro-L5 mission became the first satellite in the series to use the available extra mass to deliver a hitchhiker payload. An official document surfaced during the launch campaign in February 2026 listing a satellite, designated OChR, accompanying Elektro-L5 during its ride on Proton to geostationary orbit. There was no description of the new passenger, but one known OChR abbreviation used in space industry stands for Orbitalno-Chastotny Resurs or the Orbital Frequency Resource. It is a term referring to the international registration of spectrum frequencies, often in context of deadlines for their expirations and the efforts to preserve the Russian ownership of registered but unused orbital positions and radio-spectrum frequencies. Therefore, it could be speculated that the secretive payload was intended for deployment at one of orbital positions as a stand-in vehicle for some delayed satellite. Elektro L5 launch campaign
A container with the Elektro-L5 satellite is being loaded aboard a transport aircraft in Moscow for a trip to Baikonur in mid-November 2025. On Sept. 10, 2025, Roskosmos reported the arrival in Baikonur of a train with the components of a Proton vehicle for a federal mission, along with a Block-DM03 stage and a payload fairing manufactured at NPO Lavochkin. At the time, the launch was expected around Dec. 22, 2025, but the mission was later advanced to Dec. 15, 2025. The Elektro-M5 satellite, which was not initially announced as the payload for this Proton mission, was air-shipped from Moscow to Baikonur around Nov. 10, 2025. On Nov. 26, 2025, Roskosmos reported the completion of electric checks and the start of integrated tests on the Proton rocket that included checks of engines and the onboard cable network among other systems. On Dec. 11, 2025, the State Commission cleared the rocket for the rollout to the launch pad. The next morning, the vehicle left the assembly building at Site 92A-50 and traveled to the launch pad at Site 81. The liftoff was scheduled for Dec. 15, 2025, at 15:20:18 Moscow Time. However, on Dec. 13, 2025, final checks revealed a problem in the Block DM-03 upper stage which forced the postponement of the launch, Roskosmos announced. According to the Zakryty Kosmos Telegram channel, a software issue required the return of the rocket back to the processing building and the disassembly of the payload section. The potential need to ship the onboard avionics back to the manufacturer would likely push the mission well into 2026. The launch vehicle was removed from the launch pad and returned to the processing building on Dec. 14, 2025. After the return of the computer back to the manufacturer, the machine showed normal operations during both autonomous and integrated tests, which pointed at the problem somewhere else in the systems of the upper stage. Following the successful resolution of the problem, the vehicle was rolled out back to the pad in the early hours of Feb. 9, 2025. Elektro-5L launch profile
A Proton-M/Block DM-03 rocket carrying Elektro-L5 satellite is scheduled to lift off from Pad No. 24 at Site 81 in Baikonur on Dec. 15, 2025, at 15:52:15 Moscow Time (7:52 a.m. EST). Propelled by six RD-276 engines, the first stage will boost the rocket off the pad and after a few seconds in vertical ascent, the vehicle will start turning east (to an azimuth of 62 degrees 2 minutes and 33 seconds), firing for around two minutes. The separation of the first and second stages should take place at L (launch)+123.791 seconds into the flight. Moments before separation, the four-engine cluster of the second stage will take over the powered flight, firing for the first few moments through a lattice structure connecting two stages. The first stage will fall on the ground at drop zone 25/15 in the Ulytau Region of Kazakhstan. The second stage will operate for three and half minutes and separate around five minutes 36 seconds after launch (L+335.767 seconds). Moments earlier, the four thrusters of the RD-0214 steering engine on the third stage should fire through special openings in the ring adapter connecting the second and third stage and immediately after the second stage drops off along with the adapter, the main RD-0213 engine on the third stage will join in. Seconds later, the payload fairing protecting the satellite from aerodynamic loads in the lower atmosphere will split into two halves and drop away five minutes and 49 seconds into the flight (L+349.145 seconds). The second stage and payload fairing will impact the ground at Drop Zone No. 326 in the border area of Altai Republic, Tuva Republic and Republic of Khakasiya. The third stage should fire its main engine until around 9.5 minutes into the flight. The four-nozzle steering engine of the stage will continue operating for around 12 seconds longer to refine the speed of the vehicle to a precise parameter just short of orbital velocity. A fraction of a second after the third stage steering engine cutoff, the payload section, including the Block DM-03 upper stage and the Elektro-L5 satellite should separate into a suborbital trajectory nine minute and 45 seconds after liftoff (L+585.205 seconds). The third stage is expected to reenter the atmosphere and any of its surviving debris to fall into the Pacific Ocean. Space tug operations
After nearly six minutes in a passive ballistic flight and 15 minutes 44.288 seconds after liftoff from Baikonur, while on a trajectory peaking at 199.67 kilometers above the Earth, the Block DM-03 upper stage is programmed to fire its main engine for the first time. The maneuver, lasting slightly more than a minute, is designed to insert the stage and its payload into an initial parking orbit around the Earth. Its planned perigee (lowest point) is to be around 175 kilometers and its apogee 208 kilometers from the Earth's surface. The stack is timed to fly passively around the planet for nearly one full orbit. The main engine of Block DM-03 will then re-start one hour 12 minutes and 59.026 seconds after liftoff and fire for around eight minutes. The maneuver is designed to stretch the orbit into an ellipse with an apogee near the altitude of geostationary orbit at 35,487.4 kilometers above the Earth's surface. At the same time, the perigee will increase to just 251.8 kilometers. The space tug and its cargo will then climb passively away from Earth for more than five hours. Upon reaching the apogee of the transfer orbit six hours 25 minutes and 19 seconds after liftoff, Block DM-03 will fire its engine for the third time, for almost four minutes, to circularize the orbit at an altitude a few hundred kilometers lower than the 36,000-kilometer geostationary orbit. The maneuver is designed to cause the satellite to slowly drift in the easterly direction relative to the Earth's surface, before its own propulsion system will be used to slightly boost its orbit so that its orbital period matches the 24-hour rotation of the Earth around its axis and, and, as a result, the satellite will appears "hanging" in the sky for an observer on Earth. The third maneuver of the upper stage is also designed to tilt the inclination of the orbit from the latitude of Baikonur to that of the Equator. The energy-hungry inclination change is intentionally conducted at the highest altitude to minimize the influence of the Earth's gravitational pull and thus to save propellant. Less than nine minutes after the completion of the third engine burn (at L+6 hours 37 minutes 49.874 seconds), Block DM-03 will release Elektro-L5 into its planned orbit 6 hours 37 minutes and 50 seconds after liftoff from Baikonur. The satellite is expected to eventually operate in the geostationary orbit over the Equator. In the next eight minutes after the separation of Elektro-L5, the OChR payload is expected to be ejected from Block DM-03 (at L+6 hours, 45 minutes 54.864 seconds), completing the Proton mission.
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