Starship Asterisk*

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Above: Russia's Elektro-L spacecraft captured this view of the Moon
over the Red Sea region of the Earth. (Credit: NPO Lavochkin)

Right: On 2011 Feb 26 at 14:30 Moscow Time, the Elektro-L satellite
produced its first breathtaking image of the home planet. (Credit:
NPO Lavochkin)

Elektro-L Mission Page

This stunning picture of the Moon and Earth was taken by Russia’s new Elektro-L spacecraft, a weather-forecasting satellite that launched in January 2011. This is the first major spacecraft developed in post-Soviet Russia, and it is designed to give Russian meteorologists the ability to watch the entire disk of the planet, thanks to the satellite’s position in the geostationary orbit 36,000 kilometers above the equator. The clarity of the images is fantastic, as you can see in another image of just the Earth, below. The Elektro-L is designed to last at least a decade, and will enable local and global weather forecasting, analysis of oceanic conditions, as well as space weather monitoring, such as measurements of solar radiation, properties of Earth’s ionosphere and magnetic field.

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Beyond wrote:
I may be a little off on this, but why would the Russians put a weather satellite in a position where their own weather is barely seen? They do have a very good view of the middle east, especially IF they have zoom-able cameras on board.

It can be seen well enough.