Soyuz-2.1a launch vehicle successfully launched from Baikonur

The Soyuz-2.1a carrier rocket with 38 satellites from 18 countries, the launch of which was postponed from March 20, launched from 31 sites (Vostok launch complex) of the Baikonur Cosmodrome. The broadcast is being conducted on the Roskosmos website.

In about nine minutes, the Fregat upper stage with satellites will separate from the third stage of the rocket. It will take just over an hour to put the South Korean CAS500-1 into the target orbit. From about 11:35 to 11:37 Moscow time, the separation of the first batch of satellites of the associated payload is expected, from 13:13 to 13:43 Moscow time - the second.

Initially, the launch was scheduled for March 20, but shortly before the launch, it was moved to a reserve date. On Saturday evening, Roscosmos CEO Dmitry Rogozin told TASS that the launch is scheduled for March 22. According to him, the transfer is associated with a problem with ground equipment, which has already been fixed. As Glavkosmos Launch Services later clarified, the problem was related to the ground auxiliary equipment of the Fregat upper stage.

A CAS500 Earth remote sensing spacecraft (ERS) was launched into orbit on a Soyuz-2.1a rocket. -1 (Republic of Korea), Japanese space debris removal vehicle ELSA-d, Japanese remote sensing satellites GRUS, Saudi Arabia's small Earth imaging and communications satellite NAJM-1, communications satellites of the Technical University of Berlin.

Also The first satellite of the Higher School of Economics (NRU HSE) remote sensing, the cubesat of the Sirius center and the NRU HSE, as well as the Orbikraft-Zorkiy satellite of the Sputniks company and other devices went into orbit from the Baikonur Cosmodrome.

Earlier source in the rocket and space industry told TASS that the rocket for launching 38 spacecraft will be in white and blue instead of the standard gray-orange color combination. Later, Roscosmos confirmed this information. The change in design is a reference to the prototype of the Vostok launch vehicle installed on the territory of VDNH (Yuri Gagarin made the first space flight in the history of mankind on such a rocket) and the corporate colors of Glavkosmos Launch Services and Roscosmos.