Russia tests successfully its first atmospheric satellite

Russia has successfully tested its first high-altitude unmanned vehicle, or atmospheric satellite, Izvestia daily says in an article published in its Tuesday's edition. Atomospheric satellites are commonly known as atmosats and are sometimes called pseudo-satellites. The testing has been done by the Foundation for Advanced Research Projects (FPI), which is an agency for research in prospective defense technologies, and the Research and Production Enterprise Taiber. The vehicle stayed in the air without landing for 50 hours at the altitudes of up to 9,000 meters. The FPI does not reveal details on the technological characteristics of the atmosat but it known that the vehicle that was made of materials on the basis of carbonic fibers had the wingspan of 9 meters and weighed some 12 kg. More

(Source: TASS - Aug 2)