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Russia’s Ionosfera-M satellites successfully delivered into designated orbit — Roscosmos

The Fregat booster continues delivering hosted payload satellites into their target orbits

MOSCOW, July 25. /TASS/. A pair of Ionosfera-M heliogeophysical satellites launched from the Vostochny spaceport in the Russian Far East was successfully delivered into the sun-synchronous orbit by a Fregat booster, Russia’s State Space Corporation Roscosmos announced on Friday.

"The Ionosfera-M No. 3 and Ionosfera-M No. 4 satellites launched from the Vostochny spaceport have been delivered into the designated orbit and have separated from the Fregat booster," Roscosmos said in a statement.

The Fregat booster continues delivering hosted payload satellites into their target orbits, it added.

A Soyuz-2.1b carrier rocket with two Ionosfera-M heliogeophysical satellites and 18 small satellites as a hosted payload blasted off from Site 1S at the Vostochny spaceport at 8:54 a.m. Moscow time (5:54 a.m. GMT). The launch vehicle delivered a Fregat booster with Ionosfera-M No. 3 and Ionosfera-M No. 4 satellites and 18 secondary payloads, including the Iranian Nahid-2 telecommunications satellite into the support orbit.

Ionosfera-M satellites make part of the Ionozond system that Russia is creating to monitor the heliogeophysical environment (space weather) to address a broad range of tasks, including the observation of the ionosphere and the Sun. In particular, there are plans to study ozone distribution in the upper layers of the atmosphere and the radiation environment.

The first two Ionosfera-M satellites were delivered into orbit in November last year. As compared to the first pair of satellites, the Ionosfera-M No. 3 and Ionosfera-M No. 4 are positioned in a perpendicular orbit and are equipped with instruments to measure ozone concentration in the atmosphere.

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