posted 07-07-2019 06:11 AM               

Space Cover #522: TUBSAT-N launch

This event went mostly unnoticed, this day, June 7, 1998, Russian nuclear powered sub K-407 Novomoskovsk successfully launched two German satellites – TUBSAT N and TUBSAT N1, from submerged position in Barents Sea. The launch vehicle was standard ICBM R-29RM Shtil (NATO – SS-N-23 Skiff), its warhead faring housed an Israeli instrument package and the German micro-satellites having the weight of 8kg and 3kg respectively. The tiny satellites, referred to as nanosatellites, were built and operated by the Technische Universitat Berlin (TUB), orbited Earth at 400x700km. For this launch German side paid Russian Ministry of Defense $111,000. This was the first launch of a satellite from a submerged maritime platform.

On the astrophilately side, dedicated covers were printed by known Russian dealer and postmarked in Severomorsk – homeport of K-407. The number of covers are not really known but according to my correspondence with the guy, it was not more than 200.