Russia’s brand new cosmodrome launches first-ever rocket
Soyuz-2.1a successfully launched from Vostochny
Source ROSCOSMOS Media Store
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3pB...
Vladimir Putin observed the launch of the Soyuz-2.1a carrier rocket from the Vostochny Space Launch Centre. The booster will deliver into orbit three spacecraft – Mikhail Lomonosov, Aist-2D and SamSat-218.
The President congratulated Roscosmos, cosmodrome workers and builders on the successful launch of the carrier rocket.
“I would like to congratulate you all. We have reason to be proud,” Vladimir Putin said at a meeting with rocket launch team and Roscosmos representatives. “This is definitely a very important and significant step forward in the development of the Russian cosmonautics.”
The President was joined for the launch event by Chief of Staff of the Presidential Executive Office Sergei Ivanov, Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin, General Director of Roscosmos Igor Komarov, Commander of the Russian Space Forces and Deputy Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Aerospace Forces Lieutenant-General Alexander Golovko, First Deputy Director of Roscosmoc Alexander Ivanov, Director of the Federal Agency for Special Construction Alexander Volosov, and the team of builders who took part in the cosmodrome construction.
The launch initially scheduled for April 27, had been postponed for 24 hours following failure in operation of the flight control system.
Vostochny is Russia’s first civilian spaceport for preparation and launch of scientific, socioeconomic and commercial satellites. The main construction works were completed in mid-January of 2016.
The Mikhail Lomonosov satellite is designed to help study transient phenomena in the Earth’s upper atmosphere and magnetosphere and near-Earth radiation environment along with fundamental cosmological studies.
Первый пуск с космодрома ВОСТОЧНЫЙ
All three satellites launched on the Soyuz rocket have been successfully deployed to their specified orbits. Experimental nanosatellite SamSat-218 disconnected from the Volga payload assist module at 07:07am Msocow time (
04:07 GMT). Ten seconds later two main payload satellites, Lomonosov and Aist-l, also reached their destinations.
The launch on Thursday was observed by Russian President Vladimir Putin, who decided to stay for an extra day to personally take part in the event.
“I want to congratulate you. There’s a lot to be proud of,” Putin told Roscosmos staff following the successful launch. “The launch could technically have taken place yesterday, but the hardware overreacted and it was aborted. But that’s a normal occurrence.”
“Most importantly, the launch complex you developed is operating, functioning well,” the president added. “There’s a lot of work up ahead, but this was certainly a very serious, significant step in the development of Russian cosmonautics.”
The historic launch came a day behind schedule. First planned for Wednesday, it was aborted at the last minute when automatic safety systems detected a fail signal in one of their sensors.
“The first launch from a new pad is an important and sensitive event. Things like this happen. We will work it out,” the head of the Russian space agency Roscosmos, Igor Komarov, said in comments on the hitch.
Vice-Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin – something of a ‘space tsar’ in the Russian government – also watched the launch at the site, and was joined by the chief of Russian Space Troops, Lt. Gen. Aleksandr Golovko.
