Astron was a Soviet astrophysical spacecraft launched on March 23 1983. It was based on Venera spacecraft design. Astron was operational for six years being the largest ultraviolet space telescope of that time.
Astron had a 80 cm ultraviolet telescope and an X-ray spectroscope onboard. Being in a high orbit (apogee 185,000 km), it could make observations beyond the Earth's shadow and radiation belt.
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