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Russia launches Soyuz-2.1a rocket with military satellite — top brass

The Soyuz-2.1a carrier rocket was engineered and is manufactured by the Progress Space Rocket Center based in Samara in the Volga area

MOSCOW, March 23. /TASS/. The Russian Aerospace Forces launched a Soyuz-2.1a carrier rocket with a military satellite from the Plesetsk spaceport, the Defense Ministry reported on Thursday.

"At 9:40 a.m. [Moscow time] on Thursday, March 23, combat teams of the Aerospace Forces’ Space Troops launched a Soyuz-2.1a medium carrier rocket with a military satellite from the Defense Ministry’s State Testing Cosmodrome (the Plesetsk spaceport)," the ministry said in a statement.

The Soyuz-2.1a carrier rocket was engineered and is manufactured by the Progress Space Rocket Center based in Samara in the Volga area. The launch vehicle belongs to the family of Soyuz carrier rockets based on the R-7 first Soviet intercontinental ballistic missile. The carrier rocket is a version of the Soyuz-2 series based on the Soyuz-U most mass-produced launch vehicle (in operation in 1973-2017).

Soyuz-2.1a carrier rockets are used to orbit various satellites, including commercial space vehicles, and spacecraft, such as Progress MS cargo craft and manned Soyuz MS spaceships to deliver supplies and crews to the International Space Station (ISS).

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