Rocket carrying 38 satellites launched from Baikonur Cosmodrome

BAIKONUR. KAZINFORM – The Soyuz-2.1a carrier rocket with a Fregat booster set to launch 38 satellites of 18 countries into orbit blasted off at 12:07pm Nur-Sultan time from the Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazinform correspondent reports.

As was reported, the liftoff scheduled for March 20, 2021, was delayed due to a technical fault.

The blastoff held today at 12:07pm Nur-Sultan time underwent in normal mode and was broadcast on the website of Roscosmos.

The separation of three stages of the carrier rocket took place as planned, with the upper stage Fregat with a cluster of space satellites placed into reference orbit 10 minutes after the blastoff.

Placing the primary payload South Korea’s CAS500-1 with the help of the Fregat booster into the target orbit is said to take just over an hour. The separation of the first batch of satellites of the secondary payload is expected between 02:35pm and 02:37pm Nur-Sultan time and the second batch between 05:13pm and 05:43pm.

South Korea’s satellite for Earth remote sensing CAS500-1, Japan’s satellite for removing space debris ELSA-d and satellites for Earth remote sensing GRUS, Saudi Arabia’s small satellite to take images of Earth and to provide communication links NAJM-1, the Technical University of Berlin’s communication satellite were put into orbit by the Soyuz-2.1a carrier rocket.