After more that four decades in orbit, Meteor 1-1, the Soviet Union's first fully operational weather satellite, fell in Antarctica on Tuesday, March 27.

      The satellite was created in the Soviet Union during the 1960s. On March 26, 1969, a Vostok rocket launched Meteor 1-1, the very first version of the Soviet Meteor satellite network, into orbit. The satellite terminated operations in July 1970.

      Meteor 1-1 provided near-global observations of the earth's weather systems and reflected and emitted radiation from the dayside and nightside of the earth-atmosphere system.

      According to the Main Center for Space Reconnaissance, Meteor 1-1 entered the Earth’s atmosphere at 02:17 a.m. Moscow time on Tuesday. It fell in the Queen Maud Land region of Antarctica.

      The network of Soviet weather satellites was one of the most successful orbital systems in the world. Unfortunately, now it is almost completely destroyed because of lack of working satellites and other technical problems. The Russian government is currently planning to restore the network, which could help monitor weather and climate conditions across the country's nine time zones.

Sourses: RIA Novosti news.mail.ru newizv.ru Image: korrespondent.net