Official name LARETS
Alternative name Larets
Cospar ID 2003-042F
Norad ID 27944
Launch date 2003-09-27
Launch site PKMTR
Launch vehicle Kosmos-3M
Country/Organization Russia
Type application Geodesy, calibration
Operator IPIE
RCS size MEDIUM
Decay date ON ORBIT
Period (min) 98.38
Inclination (deg) 98.37
Perigee (km) 672
Apogee (km) 690
Eccentricity 0.013215859030837
Mean motion (revs. per day) 14.6371213661313
Semi-Major axis (km) 7059.135
Raan (deg) 296.1819
Arg of perigee (deg) 159.5081
Shape Sphere
Mass (kg) 10
Height (m) 0.2
Width (m) 0.2
Depth (m) 0.2
Span (m^2) 0.2
Contractors Institute of Space Device Engineering - Moscow ?
Equipment 60 prism corner cube retroreflectors
Propulsion None
Configuration 21 cm dia brass body
Power None

Larets is a small geodesy and calibration satellite launched for IPIE.

It is a 21 cm sphere with 60 laser retro-reflectors, very similar to the german GFZ 1 satellite. Larets is designed to address scientific and applied problems in the interests of geodesy and geodynamics. The LARETS mission is a next stage in low-target-error laser satellite design optimization, started with the WESTPAC mission.

Larets was launched with a cluster of small satellites in September 2003 on a Kosmos-3M rocket.

Satellite COSPAR Date LS Launch Vehicle Remarks
LARETS 2003-042F 2003-09-27 PKMTR Kosmos-3M with STSAT 1, Bilsat 1, NigeriaSat 1, UK-DMC 1, Mozhayets 4, Rubin 4-DSI