VOSTOCHNY COSMODROME /Amur Region/, July 5. /TASS/. Thirty-two small satellites have detached from the Fregat upper stage and entered their target orbits, the press office of Russia’s State Space Corporation Roscosmos reported on Friday.
The Fregat booster formed three various orbits for the satellites’ most accurate and convenient delivery, depending on their missions, the press office said.
"The first is the sun-synchronous orbit at an altitude of 828 km and an inclination of 98.57 degrees, the second is with an altitude of 580 km and an inclination of 97.7 degrees. Some other part of the satellites was delivered into the orbit at an altitude of 530 km and an inclination of 97.5 degrees. All the satellites separated from the booster in the normal mode and their further control will be exercised by the companies that acted as the customers of the launch," the Roscosmos press office said.
The mini-satellites were delivered into their orbits as the hosted payload of the Meteor-M No. 2-2 weather satellite. Three of them are Russian CubeSat-format Socrat, VDNH-80 and AmurSat research and educational satellites. The other satellites belong to customers from Finland, the UK, France, Germany, the US, Israel, Sweden, Thailand, Ecuador, the Czech Republic and Estonia.
The Soyuz-2.1b carrier rocket with the Meteor-M No. 2-2 weather satellite and 32 mini-satellites as the hosted payload was launched at 8:41 a.m. Moscow time on July 5. This was the rocket’s first launch from the Vostochny spaceport this year and the fifth in the history of the new Russian cosmodrome.