NSSDCA/COSPAR ID: 1984-022A
Cosmos 1540 was a Soviet military second generation global command and control system (GKKRS) satellite launched from the Baiknour cosmodrome aboard a Proton K rocket. These satellites were integrated with the Luch geostationary system and featured retransmission of high rate data retransmission in the centimetre wavelength range. While Luch handled communications between spacecraft and ground stations, Potok handled communications between fixed points and digital data from the Yantar-4KS1 electroptical reconnaissance satellite. Potok was the first communications spacecraft built by the Lavochkin design bureau and used the Splav-2 transponder by NPO Elas.
Potok is said by one account to have utilized the KAUR-4 spacecraft bus. This had an active 3-axis orientation system, with a single central body from which extended 40 square metres of solar panels. Its basic structure was that of the KAUR-3, but it was equipped with completely new systems: a digital computer, plasma station-keeping engines, hydrazine monopropellant orientation engines, and actively-scanned antennae arrays with 0.5 degrees antenna and 0.1 degree spacecraft pointing accuracy. Cosmos 1540 was stationed at 79 deg E.
Launch Date: 1984-03-02
Launch Vehicle: Proton-K
Launch Site: Tyuratam (Baikonur Cosmodrome), U.S.S.R
Mass: 2000 kg
Questions and comments about this spacecraft can be directed to: Coordinated Request and User Support Office