Gonets

{{Short description|Russian civilian low Earth orbit communication satellite system}}

{{Use British English|date=August 2020}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2020}}

{{Infobox spacecraft class

| name = Gonets

| names_list =

| image = File:Gonets-M-Salon-du-Bourget-2013-DSC 0043.jpg

| caption = A Gonets-M satellite at Salon du Bourget in 2013.

| manufacturer = NPO Prikladnoi Mekhaniki

| country = Russia

| bus = Gonets

| applications = Communications

| orbit_reference = Geocentric orbit

| orbits = Low Earth orbit

| operator = Gonets SatCom (1996-present)
Roscosmos (1992-1996)

| lifetime = 5 years (planned)

| derivedfrom = Strela

| status = Active

| built =

| launched =

| operational =

| failed =

| lost =

| first =

| last =

| retired =

| mass = 233 to 280 kg

| power = 40 watts from solar panels

| batteries = Nickel-hydrogen

| equipment = UHF transponders {{cite web|url=http://centaur.sstl.co.uk/SSHP/data/data_gonets.html|title=GONETS|work=Small Satellites Home Page|publisher=Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd|url-status=dead|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20080709033707/http://centaur.sstl.co.uk/SSHP/data/data_gonets.html|archive-date=9 July 2008}}
(B-band / D-band)
Data rate up to 64 kbit/s

}}

Gonets (Russian Гонец, for Messenger) is a Russian civilian low Earth orbit communications satellite system. It consists of a number of satellites, derived from Strela military communications satellites. The first two satellites, which were used to test and validate the system, were launched by a Tsyklon-3 launch vehicle from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome on 13 July 1992,{{cite web|url=http://www.astronautix.com/project/strela.htm|title=Strela|last=Wade|first=Mark|publisher=Encyclopedia Astronautica|url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20080526224743/http://www.astronautix.com/project/strela.htm|archive-date=2008-05-26}} and were designated Gonets-D.{{cite web |url=http://space.skyrocket.de/doc_sdat/gonets.htm|title=Gonets|last=Krebs|first=Gunter|publisher=Gunter's Space Page|access-date=8 September 2010}} The first operational satellites, designated Gonets-D1, were launched on 19 February 1996. After launch, the first three satellites were given military Kosmos designations, a practice which was not continued with the other satellites.

Ten operational satellites and two demonstration spacecraft have been placed in orbit. A further three were lost in a launch failure on 27 December 2000. A new series of modernised Gonets satellites, Gonets-D1M, supplement and replace the satellites which are currently in orbit. A single first D1M satellite was launched by a Kosmos-3M launch vehicle on 21 December 2005.{{cite web |url=http://space.skyrocket.de/doc_sdat/gonets-m.htm|title=Gonets-M|last=Krebs|first=Gunter|publisher=Gunter's Space Page|access-date=8 September 2010}} A second Gonets-D1M satellite was launched by a Rokot launch vehicle on 8 September 2010.