CLASSIFIED

COSMOS 2579

Electro-optical cartography / reconnaissance · Russian Aerospace Forces (VKS) / TsSKB-Progress

Cosmos 2579 is a Russian military mapping satellite, the sixth in the Bars-M series, launched October 31, 2024 aboard a Soyuz 2.1a rocket from Plesetsk. Bars-M satellites are electro-optical area-surveillance and cartography spacecraft, built to replace the Soviet-era film-return Yantar-1KFT ('Kometa') series that had to physically drop canisters of exposed film back to Earth for processing — a wildly outdated approach in the digital-imaging era. Each roughly 4,000-kilogram Bars-M satellite carries the Karat camera system, built by the Leningrad Optical Mechanical Association, alongside a dual laser altimeter that produces topographic maps, stereo imagery, and high-resolution pictures down to about one meter of ground resolution — precise enough for military cartography and targeting-grade terrain mapping rather than routine reconnaissance snapshots. Despite carrying the same 'Cosmos' cover-name numbering scheme as Russia's classified Tundra/EKS early-warning satellites, Cosmos 2579 is an entirely separate program: it maps the ground rather than watching for missile launches, and shouldn't be confused with the nuclear early-warning constellation despite the naming overlap.