They are capable of producing images of the Earth's whole hemisphere in both visible and infrared frequencies, providing data for climate change and ocean monitoring in addition to their primary weather forecasting role.

Elektro–L was developed by the company NPO Lavochkin and financed from the Russian Federal Space Program 2006–2015.

[citation needed] Aerospace journalist Anatoly Zak wrote that the launch of the first Elektro–L satellite marked the "re-emergence of Russia's space industry after two decades of economic turmoil", as the spacecraft and its standardised Navigator platform were both conceived and developed after the disintegration of the Soviet Union.

[4] The Elektro–L satellites are capable of providing weather analysis and forecasting both for the territory of Russia and worldwide.

[citation needed] The satellites are able to image the entire hemisphere of Earth in visible and infrared frequencies, additionally providing data on climate change, as well as sea and ocean monitoring.

The service module, called Navigator and developed by NPO Lavochkin, is a standardised platform which will also serve as the basis for future Russian satellites,[2] including for space telescope Spektr-R.[4] The spacecraft's MSU-GS imaging system is able to provide a resolution of 1 km per pixel for the two visible bands and 4 km for eight infrared bands (ranging from 800 nm to 11,500 nm).

[1] The first spacecraft of the series, Elektro-L No.1, was launched at 15.29 Moscow Time (12:29 GMT) on 20 January 2011 from Pad 45 at Baikonur Cosmodrome.

[7] [8] The third satellite in the series Elektro-L No.3, was launched from Baikonur Cosmodrome on 24 December 2019 at 12:03 UTC by a Proton-M rocket.