EKA 1 and 2 were vehicle evaluation payloads on the maiden flights of the Start-1 and Start launch vehicles.
Vehicle
Start-1
Start · 1
Height
22.7 m
Diameter
1.61 m
LEO capacity
632 kg
Successful launches
5
Launch complex
158
Plesetsk Cosmodrome, Russian Federation
Plesetsk Cosmodrome is a Russian spaceport located in Mirny, Arkhangelsk Oblast, about 800 km north of Moscow and approximately 200 km south of Arkhangelsk. Originally developed as an ICBM site for the R-7 missile, it also served for numerous satellite launches using the R-7 and other rockets. Its high latitude makes it useful only for certain types of launches, especially the Molniya orbits, so for much of the site's history it functioned as a secondary location, with most orbital launches taking place from Baikonur, in the Kazakh SSR. With the end of the Soviet Union, Baikonur became a foreign territory, and Kazakhstan charged $115 million usage fees annually. Consequently, Plesetsk has seen considerably more activity since the 2000s.