Okno ( rus, Окно meaning window) is a Russian space surveillance station located in
Nurak
tg, Норак
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in
Tajikistan
Tajikistan (, ; tg, Тоҷикистон, Tojikiston; russian: Таджикистан, Tadzhikistan), officially the Republic of Tajikistan ( tg, Ҷумҳурии Тоҷикистон, Jumhurii Tojikiston), is a landlocked country in Centr ...
.
It is run by the
Russian Space Forces
The Russian Space Forces ( rus, Космические войска России, Kosmicheskie voyska Rossii, KV) are a branch of the Russian Aerospace Forces, that provides aerospace warning, air and space sovereignty, and other related protect ...
and is part of the
Centre for Outer Space Monitoring
Center or centre may refer to:
Mathematics
*Center (geometry), the middle of an object
* Center (algebra), used in various contexts
** Center (group theory)
** Center (ring theory)
* Graph center, the set of all vertices of minimum eccentricity ...
.
It is located above sea level in the
Sanglok mountains, an area with clear night skies. Another facility,
Okno-S, is in the
Russian Far East
The Russian Far East (russian: Дальний Восток России, r=Dal'niy Vostok Rossii, p=ˈdalʲnʲɪj vɐˈstok rɐˈsʲiɪ) is a region in Northeast Asia. It is the easternmost part of Russia and the Asian continent; and is admini ...
.
The facility consists of a number of telescopes in domes and is similar to the US
GEODSS
The United States Space Surveillance Network (SSN) detects, tracks, catalogs and identifies artificial objects orbiting Earth, e.g. active/inactive satellites, spent rocket bodies, or fragmentation debris. The system is the responsibility of Uni ...
system. It is designed for the detection and analysis of space objects such as satellites.
The designers were awarded a Russian state prize for science and technology in 2004.
History
The Okno facility was started by the Soviet Union in 1979 using thousands of military unit No. 14464 "Construction Forces" draftees. All construction stopped in 1992 due to the
civil war in Tajikistan
The Tajikistani Civil War ( tg, Ҷанги шаҳрвандии Тоҷикистон, translit=Jangi shahrvandiyi Tojikiston / Çangi shahrvandiji Toçikiston; russian: Гражданская война в Таджикистане), also known ...
and the centre started test operations in 1999 and combat duty in 2004.
Ownership of the complex was transferred from Tajikistan to Russia in 2004 in return for the writing off of $242 million
USD
The United States dollar (symbol: $; code: USD; also abbreviated US$ or U.S. Dollar, to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies; referred to as the dollar, U.S. dollar, American dollar, or colloquially buck) is the official ...
of Tajikistan's US$299 million debt to Russia.
A Russian-operated space surveillance system located in Tajikistan, Okno-M, has reached its full capacity, making it four times more powerful, the Russian Ministry of Defense reports in July 2015. The surveillance station successfully underwent state tests late in 2014.
When it was built it was believed by some in the west to be a military
anti-satellite
Anti-satellite weapons (ASAT) are space weapons designed to incapacitate or destroy satellites for strategic or tactical
purposes. Several nations possess operational ASAT systems. Although no ASAT system has been utilised in warfare, a few ...
laser facility rather than one for optical tracking. In 1987 John E. Pike of the
Federation of American Scientists
The Federation of American Scientists (FAS) is an American nonprofit global policy think tank with the stated intent of using science and scientific analysis to attempt to make the world more secure. FAS was founded in 1946 by scientists who wo ...
was quoted as saying "''Whether or not this facility will be capable of shooting down satellites or 'Star Wars,' it most certainly is developing the kind of technology that would eventually be able to do so."''
A complex like Okno features in the
Tom Clancy
Thomas Leo Clancy Jr. (April 12, 1947 – October 1, 2013) was an American novelist. He is best known for his technically detailed espionage and military science, military-science storylines set during and after the Cold War. Seventeen of ...
novel
The Cardinal of the Kremlin
''The Cardinal of the Kremlin'' is an espionage thriller novel, written by Tom Clancy and released on May 20, 1988. A direct sequel to ''The Hunt for Red October'' (1984), it features CIA analyst Jack Ryan as he extracts CARDINAL, the agency's ...
, based on actual satellite photography of the site. The description of the installations in the book matches closely its actual configuration though not its real purpose, as the book is based on Okno being a laser antimissile system. The facility is also featured in the game
Operation Flashpoint: Red River as an anti-aircraft base.
Function
![Medvedev at okno July 2009](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b8/Medvedev_at_okno_July_2009.jpg)
Okno is a facility for tracking and monitoring man-made space objects. The Russian military claims that it automatically detects objects at altitudes up to . This is above
low Earth orbit
A low Earth orbit (LEO) is an orbit around Earth with a period of 128 minutes or less (making at least 11.25 orbits per day) and an eccentricity less than 0.25. Most of the artificial objects in outer space are in LEO, with an altitude never mor ...
and includes satellites in
medium Earth orbit
A medium Earth orbit (MEO) is an geocentric orbit, Earth-centered orbit with an altitude above a low Earth orbit (LEO) and below a high Earth orbit (HEO) – between above sea level. ,
geostationary orbit
A geostationary orbit, also referred to as a geosynchronous equatorial orbit''Geostationary orbit'' and ''Geosynchronous (equatorial) orbit'' are used somewhat interchangeably in sources. (GEO), is a circular geosynchronous orbit in altitud ...
and some in
high Earth orbit
A high Earth orbit is a geocentric orbit with an altitude entirely above that of a geosynchronous orbit (). The orbital periods of such orbits are greater than 24 hours, therefore satellites in such orbits have an apparent retrograde motion ...
. It only works at night and works passively by picking up reflected sunlight off objects.
After 2014 modernization its range was increased to 50,000 km.
External links
Photos of the Nurek site [Russian]The Okno site on Google Maps
References
{{Soviet Radar
Russian Space Forces
Military installations of Russia