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Contact established with satellites launched from Russia’s Vostochny spaceport — Roscosmos

The rocket was successfully launched from the Vostochny spaceport on Thursday

© Marina Lystseva/TASS

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Soyuz rocket launched from Vostochny puts three sats in intermediate orbit

VOSTOCHNY SPACEPORT/Amur Region/, April 28. /TASS/. Roscosmos has established contact with satellites launched earlier on Thursday from the Far Eastern Vostochny spaceport, the space corporation said.

"Contact has been established with the satellites," a Roscosmos representative said.

The Soyuz-2.1 a rocket with three Russian satellites onboard - Lomonosov, Aist-2D and SamSat-218 - was successfully launched from the Vostochny spaceport in the Amur Region at 5:01 a.m. Moscow time (02:01GMT) on Thursday.

This was a maiden launch for Russia’s new spaceport. The rocket was launched at second attempt. The blastoff initially scheduled for Wednesday morning was delayed by the automatic system due to a malfunction of a cable.

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Putin congratulates Roscosmos, Vostochny builders on successful rocket launch

Launch from Vostochny spaceport was delayed due to cable malfunction

Malfunction of a cable was the reason for the postponement of the Soyuz-2.1a carrier rocket from Russia’s new Vostochy spaceport in the Far Eastern Amur region on April 27, CEO of Russia’s Space Corporation Roscosmos Igor Komarov told journalists on Thursday.

"It was a malfunction of a cable," he said when asked what had caused the delay.

The Soyuz was successfully launched from Vostochny on Thursday. Three satellites have been placed in the designated orbit. The Roscosmos CEO pointed out that the spaceport’s ground infrastructure performed in routine regime.

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From Earth to space: world's most important spaceports

Two launches from Vostochny spaceport in 2017

According to Komarov, the space corporation plans to launch Kanopus-series satellites and a Meteor spacecraft from the new Vostochny spaceport in the Far Eastern Amur region in 2017.

"In the second half of next year, we plan two launches here. One of them will probably by the launch of Kanopus satellites. The other one will probably be a Meteor, or another spacecraft," he said.

Roscosmos expects that between six and eight launches will be carried out from the Vostochny spaceport starting from 2018, Komarov said, adding that the cosmodrome may be used for several commercial launches that year.

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