[4] Kosmos 2480 was launched from Site 16/2 at Plesetsk Cosmodrome.

The launch successfully placed the satellite into low Earth orbit.

[5] The United States Space Command assigned it the Satellite Catalog Number 38335.

[7] This has the disadvantage that the satellite's life is dependent on how much film it can carry, and information from the satellite is not obtained until the film canister has returned to earth and been developed.

[1] The previous satellite of this class, Kosmos 2472, was launched on 27 June 2011 and returned to Earth on 24 October 2011.