MOSCOW – Russia on Thursday successfully launched 11 satellites from itsVostochny cosmodrome, in the third rocket liftoff from the new spaceport,the space agency said.
The country’s first orbital launch of 2018 came after a similar liftofffrom the cosmodrome in eastern Russia ended in embarrassment, withofficials losing contact with a weather satellite last November.
Lifting off as scheduled early Thursday, the Soyuz rocket carried twoRussian Earth monitoring satellites as its primary payload and nine US andGerman piggyback satellites.
During its mission the Fregat upper-stage rocket performed a complexsequence, forming several orbits for the delivery of the satellites, theRoscosmos space agency said.
‘In accordance with the flight programme, the Fregat uppper-stage placedinto orbit space vehicles of main and secondary payloads,’ the space agencysaid in a statement.
Both the Soyuz rocket and the upper stage ‘performed without a glitch,’ thestatement added.
The second liftoff from the Vostochny cosmodrome ended in failure lastNovember when Russian officials lost contact with a weather satellite hoursafter its launch.
The glitch was a fresh embarrassment for the country’s once-proud spaceindustry which has suffered a series of setbacks over recent years.