This is a recreation of an actual launch that occurred on June 20, 2002 (0933 GMT), in which a Rokot launcher put two spare satellites (each weighing 690kg) for the Iridium satellite network into orbit. The launch originated from Plesetsk Cosmodrome, 400km northeast of St. Petersburg. Both satellites were placed in a near-polar orbit
1)The Rokot launcher on the pad at Plesetsk, ready for launch
2)Liftoff!
3)T+70 seconds, altitude 39,000 meters...
4)T+121 seconds. First stage separation and second stage ignition: the first stage boost was just enough to completely clear the stratosphere...
5)The fairing separates, revealing the two passenger Iridium satellites: at this altitude, the 700kg fairing is nothing more than an extra burden...
6)The second stage continues to soldier on...
7)Second stage separation and third stage ignition, altitude 342km: the Briz third stage will need to burn for nearly 10 minutes before an actual orbit is achieved. The first burn will put it in an elliptical orbit, with an apogee of 669km: when this orbit is achieved, the engine will shutdown until the apogee is reached...
8)The 3rd stage has now reached it's 669km apogee over Antarctica, and starts another burn to circularize it's orbit, raising it's perigee to 659km
9)Since the 3rd stage is now in a proper orbit for the first satellite (Iridium 97), it is released: the satellite has extended it's solar wings and antenna panels, and will orient itself so it's antenna array faces directly at the Earth and it's solar wings face toward the sun.
10)After a slight adjustment to it's apogee by a few km, the 3rd stage released the second satellite (Iridium 98): it has already completed a whole orbit, and is now just north of Alaska...
11)After the satellite was a safe distance away, the 3rd stage reversed it's orientation and began a de-orbit burn, so that it won't become a potentially hazardous piece of space junk...
12)The 3rd stage burns up on re-entry in the night sky over the central Pacific: It has been just over 2 hours since liftoff...
BTW, speaking of Iridium satellites, does anyone else here look for Iridium “flares”? For those who have don’t know what I’m talking about, let me explain: basically the highly polished aluminum antennae panels on the satellite reflect sunlight with such intensity, it can be visible from earth even in the daylight. Since all the Iridium satellites are in a polar orbit, the flares can be spotted from anywhere on earth, provided you know where in the sky to look and when...
Here is a website that contains a program that will predict when the flares will occur in specific locations, as well as where in the sky to look for the flares: there’s also information on other objects in orbit…
Wow. Pretty damned cool screenshots.