Military satellite launched from Plesetsk Cosmodrome - Russian Defense Ministry
MOSCOW. June 5 (Interfax-AVN) - Russian Aerospace Defense Troops have successfully launched a medium-class space rocket, Soyuz-2.1a, with a satellite, for the Russian Defense Ministry, a ministry spokesperson told Interfax-AVN on Friday.
"On Friday, June 5, at 6:24 p.m. Moscow time, the Soyuz-2.1a medium-class rocket with a satellite was launched for the Defense Ministry from the launch pad N 4 at the site N43 of Plesetsk State Testing Cosmodrome. Liftoff went as planned," the ministry said in a statement obtained by Interfax-AVN on Friday.
"The ground control system of the G.S. Titov Main Test Space Center of the Aerospace Defense Troops Space Command took Soyuz-2.1a rocket under their control at 18 hours 26 minutes," the ministry said.
The taking of the spacecraft under control is expected within radio visibility of the ground automated control complex of the Space Command, the ministry said.
The launch was carried out under the general supervision of the Aerospace Defense Troops Commander, Lt. Gen. Alexander Golovko.
This is a second Soyuz-2.1a rocket launch by Aerospace Defense Troops in Plesetsk this year. In all, three rockets, two Soyuz-2s and one Rokot, have been launched from Plesetsk in 2015.
The flight tests of the Soyuz-2 space rocket complex began at Plesetsk Cosmodrome on November 8, 2004. The past ten years saw 21 Soyuz-2 rockets in 1a.,1b and 1v upgrade versions launched from the northern cosmodrome.
Soyuz-2 replaces Souyz-U which was in use in Plesetsk from 1973 to 2012. Over the period, there were 434 Soyuz-U rocket launches which delivered about 430 various satellites to the orbit.