ISS Reshetnev gets GEO-IK-2 construction deal for third satellite

On 8 December, it was announced that the Russian Ministry of Defence has contracted with the spacecraft construction firm ISS-Reshetnev to build the third in the series of GEO-IK 2 geodesy satellites.   According to the Flightglobal SpaceTrak database, so far only one GEO-IK 2 spacecraft has been launched COSMOS 2470.  That military satellite was launched into an incorrect orbit on 1 February 2010.  The satellite was discarded originally, but later used for engineering tests.  The cause of the Rockot/Breeze KM launch failure was later found to have been the Breeze KM upper stage being fired in the incorrect direction due to a control issue.