Molniya orbit
Meridian 5 (), also known as Meridian No.15L, was a communications satellite launched by the Russian Federal Space Agency which was lost in a launch failure in December 2011. The fifth Meridian spacecraft to be launched, Meridian 5 was to have been deployed into a Molniya orbit with an apogee of , a perigee of and 65 degrees of orbital inclination; from which it would have provided communications for the Russian military. It would have been operated by the newly formed Russian Aerospace Defence Forces.