Sunday, March 31, at 4:36 p.m., the Russian space agency, or Roscosmos, launched a Soyuz 2.1b rocket to move the Earth observation satellite Resurs-P No.4 into its orbit relative to the sun. Launched from Launch Complex 31/6 at Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan. It is the second mission of the Soyuz 2.1b rocket in 2024.
Resurs-P No.4 is one of the Russian Resurs-P commercial Earth observation satellite constellations. Which can take images with a resolution of up to 1 meter. It was sent to replace the Resurs-P satellites No. 1 – 3.
The Resurs satellite is an Earth observation satellite used by the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries. Meteorology, Transport, Emergency, Natural Resources and Defense of Russia It is equipped with Geoton-L1 hyperspectral imaging equipment, uses a lens with a 0.5 meter aperture and can provide images with 1.0 meter ground detail in panchromatic mode. And an accuracy of 3 – 4 meters in color mode
The group's first satellite, Resurs-P No.1, was launched into orbit in June 2013, but equipment on the satellite has failed since then. In December 2014, the Resurs-P satellite No. 2 was launched instead, but after being launched into orbit it was discovered that the thermal control system and on-board computer had problems rendering the satellite unusable.
In March 2016, a replacement satellite, Resurs-P No. 3, was launched, but one of its solar panels failed to operate within the first 10 days, and the system operated for only five months before a launch device failure occurred.