What is "gonets"

Gonets ( Russian Гонец, Messenger) is a Russian civilian low Earth orbit communication satellite system. It consists of a number of satellites, derived from Strela military communication satellites. The first two satellites, which were used to test and validate the system, were launched by a Tsyklon-3 carrier rocket from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome on 13 July 1992, and were designated Gonets-D. The first operational satellites, designated Gonets-D1, were launched on 19 February 1996. After launch, the first three satellites were given military Kosmos designations, a practice which was not continued with the other satellites.

Ten operational satellites and two demonstration spacecraft have been placed in orbit. A further three were lost in a launch failure on 27 December 2000. A new series of modernised Gonets satellites, Gonets-D1M, will supplement and eventually replace the satellites which are currently in orbit. A single first D1M satellite was launched by a Kosmos-3M rocket on 21 December 2005. A second D1M satellite was launched by a Rokot carrier rocket on 8 September 2010.

Gonets was originally a Russian Federal Space Agency programme, however in 1996 it was privatised, and it is now organised by Gonets SatCom, which is controlled by ISS Reshetnev.

On 2016, the system consists of 13 satellites (12 Gonets-M and 1 Gonets-D1). On March 2015, the Rokot carrier rocket, launched from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome, successfully put three Gonets-M communications satellites into the final orbit.