Where is Serpukhov-15 located?
Serpukhov-15 sits near Kurilovo in Kaluga Oblast, Russia. The facility derives its identity from the nearest city, Serpukhov in Moscow Oblast, which lies about 40 kilometers away.
Serpukhov-15 sits near Kurilovo in Kaluga Oblast, Russia. The facility derives its identity from the nearest city, Serpukhov in Moscow Oblast, which lies about 40 kilometers away.
This military townlet serves as the western control center for Russia's Oko satellite system. The facility provides early warning of ballistic missile launches from the continental United States and feeds information into the Russian Aerospace Defence Forces center in Solnechnogorsk.
The Oko control center was officially placed on combat duty in 1982. The last US-KMO satellite, Kosmos 2479, launched on the 30th of March 2012, while the final US-K satellite, Kosmos 2469, followed on the 30th of September 2010.
On the 26th of September 1983 the system suffered a major malfunction when it falsely identified five Minuteman ICBM launches from the United States. Lieutenant Colonel Stanislav Petrov stood on duty during the crisis and discounted the automated reports to prevent a potential retaliatory strike based on faulty sensor data.
A fire broke out at the control center on the 10th of May 2001 at 2:20 local time and caused four satellites to fail within twelve hours or less due to loss of ground contact. Two satellites disappeared immediately as Kosmos 2340 and Kosmos 2351, while two additional units failed within a year due to orbital decay from lack of station-keeping commands.