Meridian 2
It was the second satellite of the Meridian system, which replaced the older Molniya series.Meridian 2 was launched on a Soyuz-2.1a rocket with a Fregat upper stage, from Site 43/4 at the Plesetsk Cosmodrome.[3] While the launch was officially announced as successful, the satellite was placed in a significantly lower orbit than expected,[4] and it was later reported that the upper stage of the Soyuz carrier rocket had shut down five seconds early, and an attempt to compensate for the low orbit resulted in the Fregat running out of fuel during its second burn.[4][5] Molniya satellites intended for operational use were only assigned Kosmos designations if they were considered to have failed.While the launch was originally considered to have been a partial failure, with the spacecraft able to correct its own orbit, it later emerged that the spacecraft could not reach a usable orbit, and the mission was declared a failure.