Russia launches a powerful (and ill-fated) space telescope. Aimed at the ground, a Proton rocket launches the anonymous Cosmos 2344 mission into orbit. It quickly becomes clear that it is an innovative military satellite: Araks. The case is studied by Geoff Perry (a British physics professor who in 1966 deduced the existence of the Plestesk cosmodrome by calculating the orbital parameters of observed Russian satellites). With an apogee of 3,000 km, it is a Cassegrain-type space telescope (like the Hubble HST) weighing over 6 tons, 7 meters long, and with a 2-meter mirror, but pointed at Earth and capable of focusing on a target for a long time. At the end of September 1997 (one-tenth of its lifespan), it was disabled due to a fuel tank leak. A second Araks is launched shortly thereafter (Cosmos 2392, 25 July 2002).
