Launch and Orbit
The spacecraft was launched on 1 December 1989 aboard a Proton rocket from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakh SSR. It was placed in a highly eccentric 98-hour orbit with an initial apogee/perigee of 200,000 km/2,000 km respectively and an inclination of 51.5 degrees. This meant that solar and lunar perturbations would significantly increase the orbits inclination while reducing its eccentricity, such that the orbit had become near-circular by the time Granat completed its directed observations in September 1994. (By 1991, the perigee had increased to 20,000 km; by September 1994, the apogee/perigee was 59,025 km / 144,550 km at an inclination of 86.7 degrees.)
Three days out of the four-day orbit were devoted to observations. After over nine years in orbit, the observatory finally reentered the Earth's atmosphere on May 25, 1999.
| Date | Perigee (km) | Apogee (km) | Arg.perigee (deg) | Inc. (deg) | Long.asc.node (deg) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| December 1, 1989 | 70032000000000000002,000 | 7005200000000000000200,000 | 285 | 51.5 | 20.0 |
| December 1, 1991 | 700423893000000000023,893 | 7005179376000000000179,376 | 311.9 | 82.6 | 320.3 |
| December 1, 1994 | 700458959000000000058,959 | 7005144214000000000144,214 | 343.0 | 86.5 | 306.9 |
| December 1, 1996 | 700442088800000000042,088.8 | 7005160888000000000160,888 | 9.6 | 93.4 | 302.2 |
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