The satellite was designed to identify missile launches using optical telescopes and infrared sensors.

[3] A Molniya-M carrier rocket with a 2BL upper stage was used to perform the launch, which took place at 19:34 UTC on 25 April 1983.

[4] The United States Space Command assigned it the Satellite Catalog Number 14034.

The spacecraft may have been active when it self-destructed on 13 August 1983, having last made a station-keeping maneuver on 22 June 1983.

The spacecraft began drifting off station immediately after the event and never recovered..[5] All of its traceable debris re-entered the Earth's atmosphere by 11 May 1998.