The Plesetsk cosmodrome blasted off on Sunday a Soyuz-2 updated launch vehicle

Saturday, January 23, 2021

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The Plesetsk cosmodrome blasted off on Sunday a Soyuz-2 updated launch vehicle, putting into orbit the first telecom satellite of the Meridian series, Itar-Tass learnt from chief of the public relations service of Space Troops Alexei Kuznetsov. According to the service chief, “the launching of the carrier with the Meridian spacecraft was made from the northern cosmodrome at 11.34”. “The spacecraft will be put into a high-elliptical orbit with the use of a Fregat booster. The satellite is expected to separate from the booster at 18.34 in the zone of radio contact of the land automated control complex,” he said. The Soyuz-2 missile system was manufactured on orders of the Russian Defence Ministry and the Federal Space Agency (Roskosmos). “The carrier is designed to ensure independent access to space for implementing Russian space programmes, above all military,” noted Kuznetsov. The Meridian spacecraft was designed to ensure communications of sea-going ships and ice reconnaissance planes in the area of the Northern Sea Route with coastal stations as well as expansion of the network of satellite communication stations in northern areas of Siberia and the Russian Far East. Such satellites will operate on high-elliptical orbits. They will help to expand meter bands of radio frequencies and will be more reliable and of higher longevity. The Soyuz-2 carrier of the 1a stage is used to fire off Meridian. “Flying tests of the Soyuz-2 carriers of the 1a and 1b stages are being made from the Plesetsk and Baikonur cosmodromes. Each stage of updating is completed with control testing,” Kuznetsov noted. Ten launchings will be made for flying tests of the Soyuz-2 carriers: five for the Defence Ministry and five – for Roskosmos. “Under the programme of flying tests, two launchings of the Soyuz-2 carriers of the 1a stage have been carried out up to this time – on November 8, 2004 from the Plesetsk cosmodrome with a spacecraft mock-up and on October 19, 2006 from the Baikonur cosmodrome with the Metop spacecraft.” “The two blast-offs have been successful.” One of versions of Soyuz-2 will be used to lift off payloads from the Guinean space center (Courou, French Guiana). The launching of Soyuz-2 with Meridian had been initially planned on December 22. However, the launch was shifted on twice by one day over glitches, popping up while preparing for the launch.

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