Kondor (satellite)

Kondor, GRAU index 14F133, is a series of Earth imaging or military reconnaissance satellites developed by NPO Mashinostroyeniya for the Russian Aerospace Defence Forces which in 2015 became the Russian Space Forces and export customers.

[2] Satellites for the Russian military are designated "Kondor", whilst those for export are designated Kondor-E. Kondor satellites are equipped to carry either synthetic aperture radar or electro-optical imaging payloads, with the first satellite, and are launched using the Strela carrier rocket, developed by NPO Mashinostroyeniya from retired UR-100NUTTKh missiles.

[3] A mass simulator named Gruzomaket (aka Kondor-E-GVM, COSPAR 2003-055A [4]) was launched on 5 December 2003, and almost ten years later, on 27 June 2013, the first spacecraft was launched.

[6] It was the first radar imaging satellite to be operated by the Russian military after the Soviet RORSAT and Almaz-T series.

[8] Civilian versions of the satellite have been designed under the name Kondor-FKA or Kondor-FKA-M.[9][10] The launch of the first Kondor-FKA satellite took place on 26 May 2023 from the Vostochny Cosmodrome,[11] while the launch of the second took place on 30 November 2024 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome.