Russian Soyuz 2.1b rocket with space weather satellites installed at Vostochny launch pad

Science & Space November 02, 10:35

Four Ionosfera-M satellites and one Zond-M satellite will make part of the Ionozond constellation that Russia is creating to monitor geophysical processes

MOSCOW, November 2. /TASS/. A Soyuz-2.1b carrier rocket with two Ionosfera-M heliogeophysical spacecraft and 53 small satellites as hosted payloads has been installed at a launch pad of the Vostochny spaceport in Russia’s Far East, the State Space Corporation Roscosmos said on Saturday.

"Today a Soyuz-2.1b space rocket with Ionosfera-M No. 1 and Ionosfera-M No. 2 heliogeophysical spacecraft and 53 Russian and foreign associated small satellites has been transported to launch pad 1S of the Vostochny cosmodrome," the Russian space agency said in a statement.

The Soyuz-2.1b carrier rocket with the satellites is set to blast off at 2:18 a.m. Moscow time on November 5.

Four Ionosfera-M satellites and one Zond-M satellite will make part of the Ionozond constellation that Russia is creating to monitor geophysical processes (space weather) and address a broad range of tasks and, in particular, to observe the ionosphere and the Sun.

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