MOSCOW, June 27. /TASS/. The Soyuz-2.1b rocket carrying the Meteor-M No. 2-3 weather satellite and a secondary payload of 42 Russian and foreign-made spacecraft will be launched from Russia’s Vostochny spaceport on Tuesday.

The launch is scheduled for 2:34 p.m. Moscow time (11:34 GMT). About nine and a half minutes later, the upper stage will separate from the third stage of the rocket.

The Meteor-M No. 2-3 weather satellite is the main payload of the rocket. It is designed to explore the Earth’s natural resources, monitor the heliogeophysical situation in near-Earth space, and obtain information from automated data collection platforms. The satellite has an onboard radar system based on an active phased array and heliogeophysical equipment, which will make it possible to ensure the all-weather monitoring of the Northern Sea Route and expand the range of the controlled parameters.

In addition, 42 small spacecraft will also be delivered to orbit, including Russia’s RuVDS picosatellite the size of a matchbox. The manufacturer told TASS earlier that the spacecraft’s mission is to check the operation of server systems in orbit and implement projects aimed at promoting science.

According to the Russian government’s order, the PHI-Demo Satellite satellite made in the United Arab Emirates, Belarus’ BSUSat-2 nanosatellite and Malaysia’s A-SEANSAT-PG1 satellite will also be launched to orbit.