It was launched on 18 July 2011[7] on a Zenit-3F launcher from Baikonur Cosmodrome, and was designed to perform research on the structure and dynamics of radio sources within and beyond the Milky Way.

Spektr-R was one of the instruments in the RadioAstron program, an international network of observatories led by the Astro Space Center of the Lebedev Physical Institute.

[8] The telescope was intended for radio-astrophysical observations of extragalactic objects with ultra-high resolution, as well as researching of characteristics of near-Earth and interplanetary plasma.

The very high angular resolving power was achieved in conjunction with a ground-based system of radio-telescopes and interferometrical methods, operating at wavelengths of 1.35–6.0, 18.0 and 92.0 cm.

[citation needed] There was a science payload of opportunity on board, PLASMA-F, which consists of four instruments to observe solar wind and the outer magnetosphere.

These instruments are the energetic particle spectrometer MEP-2, the magnetometer MMFF, the solar wind monitor BMSW, and the data collection and processing unit SSNI-2.

[15] At the beginning of the 1980s, one of the USSR's leading developers of scientific space probes had completed a preliminary design of revolutionary, new-generation spacecraft, 1F and 2F.

The spacecraft also failed to have a moveable solar panel system, which could track the position of the Sun without requiring the entire satellite to reposition, eventually disrupting the observations process.

Using a technique called very-long-baseline interferometry, it was anticipated that ground telescopes in Australia, Chile, China, India, Japan, Korea, Mexico, Russia, South Africa, Ukraine and the United States would jointly make observations with the RadioAstron spacecraft.

[17] The Spektr-R was also planned to include a secondary BMSV within the Plazma-F experiment, the goal of which was to measure the directions and intensity of solar wind.

The first 45 days of Spektr-R's orbit were scheduled to consist of engineering commissioning, that is, the launch of the main antenna, various systems checks and communications tests.

Other Spektr-R joint observations would be handled by ground telescopes in Arecibo, Badary, Effelsberg, Green Bank, Medicina, Noto, Svetloe, Zelenchukskaya and Westerbork.