paragraph_text: Space Tethered Autonomous Robotic Satellite II or STARS-II, was a nanosatellite built by Japan's Kagawa University to test an electrodynamic tether in low Earth orbit, a follow-on to the STARS mission.

paragraph_text: Sputnik 1 (/ ˈspʊtnɪk / or / ˈspʌtnɪk /; ``Satellite - 1 '', or`` PS - 1'', Простейший Спутник - 1 or Prosteyshiy Sputnik - 1, ``Elementary Satellite 1 '') was the first artificial Earth satellite. The Soviet Union launched it into an elliptical low Earth orbit on 4 October 1957, orbiting for three weeks before its batteries died, then silently for two more months before falling back into the atmosphere. It was a 58 cm (23 in) diameter polished metal sphere, with four external radio antennas to broadcast radio pulses. Its radio signal was easily detectable even by radio amateurs, and the 65 ° inclination and duration of its orbit made its flight path cover virtually the entire inhabited Earth. This surprise success precipitated the American Sputnik crisis and triggered the Space Race, a part of the Cold War. The launch ushered in new political, military, technological, and scientific developments.

paragraph_text: On July 25, 2015, the 18th and 19th satellites were successfully launched from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center, marking the first time for China to launch two satellites at once on top of a Long March 3B/Expedition-1 carrier rocket. The Expedition-1 is an independent upper stage capable of delivering one or more spacecraft into different orbits.

paragraph_text: Earth's orbit is the trajectory along which Earth travels around the Sun. The average distance between the Earth and the Sun is 149.60 million km (92.96 million mi), and one complete orbit takes 365.256 days (1 sidereal year), during which time Earth has traveled 940 million km (584 million mi). Earth's orbit has an eccentricity of 0.0167.

paragraph_text: Foton-M No.4 was launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome on 18 July 2014, atop a Soyuz-2-1a carrier rocket. The launch was completed successfully, with the satellite separating from its rocket and beginning data transmission to its controllers. However, after four orbits, it ceased responding to commands issued to it from the ground. As a consequence of this, the spacecraft did not perform an orbit-raising maneuver that had been scheduled to occur shortly after orbital insertion. Satellite control was regained on 26 July by which time some of the microgravity experiments had already begun. On 1 August the head of Roskosmos, Oleg Ostapenko, was quoted as saying that the satellite will fly its entire two-month mission as originally planned, despite the cancellation of the orbit-boosting maneuver. However, all of the experiments completed by 27 August, and the Russian space agency decided to return the spacecraft to Earth on 1 September, two weeks earlier than the original 15 September target landing date.

paragraph_text: The Space Shuttle was a partially reusable low Earth orbital spacecraft system operated by the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), as part of the Space Shuttle program. Its official program name was Space Transportation System (STS), taken from a 1969 plan for a system of reusable spacecraft of which it was the only item funded for development. The first of four orbital test flights occurred in 1981, leading to operational flights beginning in 1982. In addition to the prototype whose completion was cancelled, five complete Shuttle systems were built and used on a total of 135 missions from 1981 to 2011, launched from the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida. Operational missions launched numerous satellites, interplanetary probes, and the Hubble Space Telescope (HST); conducted science experiments in orbit; and participated in construction and servicing of the International Space Station. The Shuttle fleet's total mission time was 1322 days, 19 hours, 21 minutes and 23 seconds.

paragraph_text: The Israeli Space Agency coordinates all Israeli space research programs with scientific and commercial goals. In 2012 Israel was ranked ninth in the world by the Futron's Space Competitiveness Index. Israel is one of only seven countries that both build their own satellites and launch their own launchers. The Shavit is a space launch vehicle produced by Israel to launch small satellites into low earth orbit. It was first launched in 1988, making Israel the eighth nation to have a space launch capability. Shavit rockets are launched from the spaceport at the Palmachim Airbase by the Israeli Space Agency. Since 1988 Israel Aerospace Industries have indigenously designed and built at least 13 commercial, research and spy satellites. Some of Israel's satellites are ranked among the world's most advanced space systems. In 2003, Ilan Ramon became Israel's first astronaut, serving as payload specialist of STS-107, the fatal mission of the Space Shuttle Columbia.

paragraph_text: Astérix, the first French satellite, was launched on November 26, 1965 by a Diamant A rocket from Hammaguir, Algeria. With Astérix, France became the sixth country to have an artificial satellite in orbit after: USSR (Sputnik 1, 1957), the United States (Explorer 1, 1958), the United Kingdom (Ariel 1, 1962), Canada (Alouette 1, 1962) and Italy (San Marco 1, 1964), and the third to launch a satellite on its own (the UK, Canada and Italy's satellites were launched on American rockets). The satellite was originally designated A-1, as the French Army's first satellite, but later renamed after the popular French comics character Astérix. Due to the relatively high altitude of its orbit, it is not expected to re-enter Earth's atmosphere for several centuries.

paragraph_text: OPS 9794 was launched at 10:21 UTC on 14 July 1983, atop an Atlas E/F carrier rocket with an SGS-2 upper stage. The Atlas used had the serial number 75E, and was originally built as an Atlas E. The launch took place from Space Launch Complex 3W at Vandenberg Air Force Base, and placed OPS 9794 into a transfer orbit. The satellite raised itself into medium Earth orbit using a Star-27 apogee motor.

paragraph_text: STSAT-2C was launched at 07:00 UTC on 30 January 2013, on the third flight of the Naro-1 carrier rocket, with a Russian first stage derived from the Angara and a South Korean second stage. Liftoff occurred from the Naro Space Centre, and the rocket successfully deployed the satellite into at low Earth orbit inclined at 80.3 degrees. The launch marked the first successful flight of the Naro-1, which had previously failed to launch STSAT-2A in 2009 and STSAT-2B in 2010.

paragraph_text: Sputnik 2 (, , "Satellite 2"), or Prosteyshiy Sputnik 2 (PS-2, , "Elementary Satellite 2") was the second spacecraft launched into Earth orbit, on 3 November 1957, and the first to carry a living animal, a Soviet space dog named Laika. Laika survived for several orbits but died a few hours after the launch.

paragraph_text: In Earth's sky, the Sun, Moon, and stars appear to move from east to west because of the rotation of Earth (so - called diurnal motion). However, orbiters such as the Space Shuttle and many artificial satellites appear to move from west to east. These are direct satellites (they actually orbit Earth in the same direction as the Moon), but they orbit Earth faster than Earth itself rotates, and so appear to move in the opposite direction of the Moon. Mars has a natural satellite Phobos, with a similar orbit. From the surface of Mars it appears to move in the opposite direction because its orbital period is less than a Martian day. There are also smaller numbers of truly retrograde artificial satellites orbiting Earth which counter-intuitively appear to move westward, in the same direction as the Moon.

paragraph_text: The dissolution of the Soviet Union occurred on December 26, 1991, officially granting self - governing independence to the Republics of the Soviet Union. It was a result of the declaration number 142 - Н of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union. The declaration acknowledged the independence of the former Soviet republics and created the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), although five of the signatories ratified it much later or did not do so at all. On the previous day, 25 December 1991, Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev, the eighth and final leader of the Soviet Union, resigned, declared his office extinct, and handed over its powers -- including control of the Soviet nuclear missile launching codes -- to Russian President Boris Yeltsin. That evening at 7: 32 p.m., the Soviet flag was lowered from the Kremlin for the last time and replaced with the pre-revolutionary Russian flag.

paragraph_text: Raisa Maximovna Gorbacheva ( "Raisa Maksimovna Gorbachyova", , Титаренко; 5 January 1932 – 20 September 1999) was a Russian activist who was the wife of Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev. She raised funds for the preservation of Russian cultural heritage, fostering of new talent, and treatment programs for children's blood cancer.

paragraph_text: USA-242 is a spacecraft, built by Boeing with a design life of 15 years. It operates from a semi-synchronous medium Earth orbit, at an altitude of an inclination of 55 degrees, in slot 5 of plane C of the GPS constellation. The new satellite was originally intended to replace the seventeen-year-old USA-117 satellite, but currently both USA-117 (SVN-33) and USA-242 (SVN-66) are in active use. USA-242 broadcasts its navigation signals using the PRN-27 signal modulation.

paragraph_text: Andover Earth Station was one of the first satellite earth stations, located at Andover in the US state of Maine. It was built by AT&T in 1961 to communicate with the Telstar 1 satellite, the first direct relay communications satellite. It provided the first experimental satellite telephone and television service between North America and Europe. It was also used with the Relay satellite. The station was dismantled in the 1990s.

paragraph_text: Unlike the American GPS, Russian GLONASS, and European Galileo systems, which use medium Earth orbit satellites, BeiDou-1 uses satellites in geostationary orbit. This means that the system does not require a large constellation of satellites, but it also limits the coverage to areas on Earth where the satellites are visible. The area that can be serviced is from longitude 70°E to 140°E and from latitude 5°N to 55°N. A frequency of the system is 2491.75 MHz.

paragraph_text: OPS 5111 was launched at 23:44 UTC on 22 February 1978, atop an Atlas E/F carrier rocket with an SGS-1 upper stage. The Atlas used had the serial number 64F, and was originally built as an Atlas F. The launch took place from Space Launch Complex 3E at Vandenberg Air Force Base, and placed OPS 5111 into a transfer orbit. The satellite raised itself into medium Earth orbit using a Star-27 apogee motor.

paragraph_text: The U.S. Earth satellite program began in 1954 as a joint U.S. Army and U.S. Navy proposal, called Project Orbiter, to put a scientific satellite into orbit during the International Geophysical Year. The proposal, using a military Redstone missile, was rejected in 1955 by the Eisenhower administration in favor of the Navy's Project Vanguard, using a booster advertised as more civilian in nature. Following the launch of the Soviet satellite Sputnik 1 on October 4, 1957, the initial Project Orbiter program was revived as the Explorer program to catch up with the Soviet Union.

paragraph_text: The Moon is an astronomical body that orbits planet Earth, being Earth's only permanent natural satellite. It is the fifth - largest natural satellite in the Solar System, and the largest among planetary satellites relative to the size of the planet that it orbits (its primary). Following Jupiter's satellite Io, the Moon is second - densest satellite among those whose densities are known.

Question: Who was married to the man who was president of the Russian Republic at the time when the country who built the first satellite to orbit the Earth disintegrated?
Answer: Raisa Maximovna Gorbacheva