Kosmos 2441 (russian: Космос 2441 meaning ''Cosmos 2441''), also known as Persona No.1, was a Russian optical

reconnaissance satellite A reconnaissance satellite or intelligence satellite (commonly, although unofficially, referred to as a spy satellite) is an Earth observation satellite or communications satellite deployed for military or intelligence applications. Th ...

launched in 2008. The first

Persona A persona (plural personae or personas), depending on the context, is the public image of one's personality, the social role that one adopts, or simply a fictional character. The word derives from Latin, where it originally referred to a theatr ...

satellite, it failed a few months into its mission, which was scheduled to have lasted three to five years. It was the first Russian reconnaissance satellite to be placed into a

sun-synchronous orbit A Sun-synchronous orbit (SSO), also called a heliosynchronous orbit, is a nearly polar orbit around a planet, in which the satellite passes over any given point of the planet's surface at the same local mean solar time. More technically, it is ...

. Kosmos 2441 was launched by a Soyuz-2-1b

carrier rocket A launch vehicle or carrier rocket is a rocket designed to carry a payload (spacecraft or satellites) from the Earth's surface to outer space. Most launch vehicles operate from a launch pads, supported by a launch control center and syste ...

flying from Site 43/4 of the

Plesetsk Cosmodrome Plesetsk Cosmodrome ( rus, Космодром «Плесецк», r=Kosmodrom "Plesetsk", p=kəsmɐˈdrom plʲɪˈsʲet͡sk) is a Russian spaceport located in Mirny, Arkhangelsk Oblast, about 800 km north of Moscow and approximately 200 ...

. The launch took place at 18:31:36 UTC on 26 July 2008, and marked the first Soyuz-2-1b launch from Plesetsk. Following its successful deployment the satellite was given its Kosmos designation, and was assigned the

International Designator The International Designator, also known as COSPAR ID, is an international identifier assigned to artificial objects in space. It consists of the launch year, a three-digit incrementing launch number of that year and up to a three-letter code repr ...

2008-037A and

Satellite Catalog Number The Satellite Catalog Number (SATCAT, also known as NORAD (North American Aerospace Defense) Catalog Number, NORAD ID, USSPACECOM object number or simply catalog number, among similar variants) is a sequential nine-digit number assigned by the Un ...

33272. In February 2009, it was reported that Kosmos 2441 had failed shortly after launch. The date of the failure was not announced, however the satellite was last seen to manoeuvre in September 2008. The cause of the failure was reported to be an electrical problem, possibly caused by higher radiation levels encountered by the satellite in sun-synchronous orbit compared to previous satellites in lower-inclination orbits. The next Persona satellite was not launched until 2013, when it was placed into orbit as Kosmos 2486.

References

{{Orbital launches in 2008 Spacecraft launched in 2008 Reconnaissance satellites of Russia Spacecraft launched by Soyuz-2 rockets