MOSCOW. April 3 (Interfax-AVN) - The Russian meteorological satellite Elektro-L has run out of order and stopped transmitting images, the Scientific Center of Earth Operative Monitoring website said.
"Current data transfer has been suspended for technical reasons," says a report posted on the website's Elektro-L page.
The satellite transmitted its last image on March 31. The center is receiving data updates from other satellites, such as Resurs-P and Canopus-B, in a normal manner.
A chart of readings from the Elektro-L satellite's SKL-E instrument available on the Federal Hydro-Meteorology and Environmental Monitoring Service website showed a break in data transfer on March 31 but data transfer resumed several hours later. A chart of readings from the FM-E magnetometer mounted on the same satellite demonstrated a sudden disturbance of the magnetosphere along the x-axis in the same period.
A rocket and space industry representative told Interfax-AVN the satellite had stabilization problems.
Interfax-AVN has yet to obtain an official comment from Roscosmos.
NPO Lavochkin General Designer and Director Viktor Khartov told Interfax-AVN earlier about problems with the Elektro-L payload but said it was still possible to use the satellite as intended.
Elektro-L was put into orbit in late January 2011. It was tested until August and put on a trial run in a later period. NPO Lavochkin designed the modular satellite mounted on the Navigator non-pressurized platform. The satellite has a takeoff mass of 1,766 kilograms and a power output of 1.7 kilowatts. Its service life is ten years.
The main element of the satellite payload is the MSU-GS geostationary multi-zonal scanner, which consists of two units filming the whole Earth in visible and infrared spectrums. The filming periodicity is 30 minutes, which may be reduced to 10-15 minutes by a command from the ground control station in case of natural calamities.