New American Satellites Put Into Space, Thanks To Russia

Following the launch failure of a Russian weather satellite in November, Russia’s Roscosmos made another attempt at shoot up a Soyuz rocket, packed with 11 satellites, from Russia’s new Vostochny cosmodrome located in Russia’s Far East.

"All the devices, including foreign ones, were delivered. ‘Canopuses’ are oriented and connected. Thank you all," Dmitry Rogozin, Russia’s Deputy Prime Minister responsible for space, posted on his official Facebook page, referring to the launch that took place on February 1.

Two Earth-monitoring satellites called “Canopus-B” No. 3 and No. 4, and nine American and German satellites were on board the rocket. The foreign satellites included S-Net, Lemur and D-Star One. An hour after the launch, the spacecraft “Kanopus-V” No. 3 and No. 4 went into orbits.

Thursday's launch, which was initially scheduled for December, marked the third rocket liftoff from Vostochny. The decision to postpone the launch was due to the failed launch of Meteor-M's Soyuz rocket in November, which resulted in the destruction of all 18 satellites.

This time, the Fregat Upper Stage rocket performed a complex sequence, making several orbits for the delivery of the satellites during its mission, according to the Roscosmos space agency.

"In accordance with the flight programme, the Fregat upper-stage placed into orbit space vehicles of main and secondary payloads," read a space agency in a statement.

Located in Russia’s Amur region near the Chinese border, the Vostochny cosmodrome sits about 3,500 miles (5,632 kilometers) east of Moscow, not far from an abandoned Soviet-era missile base called Svobodny, which itself hosted a handful of satellite launches. The first launch from the facility took place on April 28, 2016.

The construction of Vostochny was part of a plan to reduce Russia’s dependence on Kazakhstan, which houses the 1950s, Soviet-era Baikonur cosmodrome located in Kazakhstan, which Russia has leased until 2050. Since the end of the Soviet era Russia has launched from Baikonur 470 missions.

In 2017, Russia’s space agency Roscosmos carried out two launches from Vostochny, and at least five are planned for this year. Russia plans to launch 90 percent of its space missions from Vostochny by 2030.