From the Vostochny cosmodrome was launched rocket “Soyuz-2.1 a” with eleven companions. Among them, two instruments for remote Earth sounding “kanopus-V” № 3 and 4, as well as nine foreign vehicles. This launch was the third in a row for the new Russian cosmodrome, and he strictly according to plan, without any emergencies, successfully bringing the cargo into the calculated orbit.
The launch took place at 05:07:18 Moscow time. Immediately after separation from the launch pad, the rocket performed a u-turn to get the necessary azimuth for launch into a polar orbit. About an hour later the upper stage “Fregat” brought the payload orbits. The separation of the spacecraft took place as scheduled at 6:06 Moscow time, — Roscosmos reports. Following the launch of Russian rockets from the Vostochny is planned for February 11. During this mission, the cargo ship “Progress MS-08” will deliver to the ISS fuel, groceries and other precious cargo. In total for the first quarter of 2018 will have four run.
Despite the fact that on Board the “Soyuz-2.1 a” was nine satellites of foreign production, the greatest value was represented by the Russian spacecraft “Canopus-b”, designed to produce panchromatic and multispectral images of the planet’s surface. With their help, planned monitoring of technogenic and natural emergencies, to monitor agricultural activity and to do the mapping. Satellite images, plan to use not only the Russian space Agency, but also in the EMERCOM of Russia, Ministry of natural resources and ecology, Roshydromet, RAS, and other agencies.
Recall that the previous launch of the carrier rocket from the Vostochny cosmodrome ended in failure, resulting in lost 19 satellites, including the satellite “meteor-M”. According to the official statement of the Commission under the leadership of Deputy Director General of TsNIIMash of Oleg Skorobogatov, the accident resulted in “neprognoziruemoe the behavior of the upper stage after its separation from the carrier rocket”.
From the cosmodrome “East” was carried out the third launch
Sergey Grey