Foton-M No.2 | |
Mission Type: | Microgravity research |
Operator: | Roskosmos ESA |
Cospar Id: | 2005-020A[1] |
Satcat: | 28686 |
Mission Duration: | 16 days[2] |
Spacecraft Type: | Foton-M |
Launch Mass: | 600kg (1,300lb) |
Payload Mass: | 385kg (849lb) |
Launch Date: | UTC |
Launch Site: | Baikonur 1/5 |
Orbit Reference: | Geocentric |
Orbit Regime: | Low Earth |
Orbit Eccentricity: | 0.00308 |
Orbit Periapsis: | 261km (162miles) |
Orbit Inclination: | 63ยบ |
Orbit Period: | 93 minutes |
Apsis: | gee |
Foton-M No.2 was an unmanned Foton-M spacecraft which carried a European payload for the European Space Agency (ESA). It was placed into orbit by a Russian Soyuz-U rocket launched at 12:00 UTC on 20 June 2005 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan by the Russian Space Agency (RKA). The Foton-M No.2 mission was a replacement for the failed Foton-M No.1 mission, which was lost in a launch failure on 15 October 2002.
The 600kg (1,300lb) payload carried by the spacecraft included of experiments; consisting of 39 experiments in fluid physics, biology, material science, meteoritics, radiation dosimetry and exobiology (BIOPAN-5). Some of the experiments were designed by the ESA's student programme.
One notable experiment tested the ability of lichen to survive in space. It was successful, as the lichen survived over 14 days of exposure to space.