Soyuz-2.1a rocket carrying 11 satellites launched from Russia’s Vostochny spaceport
The booster will deliver to orbit Russia’s two Kanopus-V satellites, Germany’s four S-Net satellites and one D-Star One satellite, as well as four US LEMUR remote sensing satellites
VOSTOCHNY SPACEPORT /Amur region/, February 1. /TASS/. Russia’s Soyuz-2.1a rocket carrying 11 satellites has been launched from the Vostochny spaceport, a TASS correspondent reported from the site.
According to sources in the Roscosmos Space Corporation, the rocket is carrying Russia’s two Kanopus B satellites, Germany’s four S-Net satellites and one D-Star One satellite, as well as four US LEMUR remote sensing satellites.
The Fregat booster carrying 11 satellites has separated from the Soyuz-2.1a rocket, launched from Russia’s Vostochny spaceport earlier on Thursday, a source in the Roscosmos Space Corporation told reporters.
The booster will deliver to orbit Russia’s two Kanopus-V satellites, Germany’s four S-Net satellites and one D-Star One satellite, as well as four US LEMUR remote sensing satellites.
Previous launch
On November 28, the second launch from Russia’s new Vostochny spaceport ended in a failure. The Soyuz-2.1b with the Fregat booster was expected to deliver the Meteor-M No 2-1 and 18 smaller satellites into orbit. A special commission was established to figure out the reasons for the crash. After the December 1 meeting, the commission announced that the spaceport’s equipment and the Soyuz-2.1b had operated normally, while the issue was rooted in the Fregat booster, which is believed to have fallen in the northern part of the Atlantic Ocean together with all the satellites.
Roscosmos set up a commission to investigate into the crash, which came to the conclusion that the incident had occurred due to software flaws in the booster’s control system.