MOSCOW, July 24 (RIA Novosti) – The reception of telemetry data from the Foton-M, a research spacecraft carrying life in space, even after connection with the biosatellite was lost proves that it can operate autonomously for a long time, Roscosmos, Russia’s Federal Space Agency, said in a statement Thursday.
“We process and analyze the telemetry information we receive from the spacecraft [Foton-M] about its systems functioning. The results of analysis show that all support systems of the satellite are operating in a proper way,” the statement on agency’s website reads.
The agency specified that the design and onboard control systems of the Foton-M enable its self-sufficient operation.
The Foton-M was launched on July 19 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome on a mission to study the effect of weightlessness on plants and insects, and to conduct experiments on the growth of semiconductor crystals.
