Russia launches 38 foreign satellites from 18 countries in historic mission

In a historic mission, Russia launched 38 foreign satellites on March 22, 2021 aboard Soyuz-2.1a launch vehicle from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. It was the first fully commercial launch of the Soyuz-2 launch vehicle.

Nine minutes after a successful takeoff, the upper stage separated from the rest of the spacecraft and, over time, began to insert satellites into their designated orbits. All the satellites were inserted into three sun-synchronous orbits.

LIFTOFF 🚀

The Soyuz-2.1a carrier rocket with the Fregat upper stage and 38 spacecraft (#CAS500-1 as main payload) lifted off from the #Baikonur cosmodrome.

Watch with us ➡️ https://t.co/b0mrI021s5 pic.twitter.com/NcwKWKImVt

— РОСКОСМОС (@roscosmos) March 22, 2021

The satellites belonged to 18 different countries including South Korea, Japan, Canada, Saudi Arabia, Germany, Italy and Brazil. 

The Russian space agency, Roscosmos said in a statement that the "Soyuz-2.1a carrier rocket with the Fregat upper stage and 38 spacecraft from 18 countries took off from the Baikonur cosmodrome." It added saying that the main payload is the South Korean satellite #CAS500-1.

#CAS500: T+08:48 min → separation of the upper stage from the third stage of the rocket.

After the successful separation of the payload, the Fregat upper stage continued to inject the spacecraft into the assigned orbit. Stay tuned! pic.twitter.com/KARdMWe2wJ

— РОСКОСМОС (@roscosmos) March 22, 2021

Key Highlights 

•The CAS500-1 satellite is a South Korean remote sensing satellite and it is fitted with a camera, which will provide high-resolution electro-optical images of the Earth. 

Спутник #CAS500-1 выведен на орбиту 🛰️🌍

После двух включений двигателя разгонного блока «Фрегат» южнокорейский аппарат дистанционного зондирования CAS500-1 штатно отделился на целевой орбите!

«Разгонник» продолжает свою работу по выведению оставшихся 37 аппаратов на две орбиты pic.twitter.com/TFh0CXKqsj

— РОСКОСМОС (@roscosmos) March 22, 2021

•Challenge-1 satellite was also among the 38 satellites. The satellite is the first one to be made completely in Tunisia. It was created by the Telnet telecommunications group.

•The launch took place on March 22nd after being postponed twice. It was initially supposed to take place on March 20th but was postponed after a surge in voltage was detected. 

•The launch vehicle took off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, which is the largest operational space launch facility in the world. 

•The Baikonur Cosmodrome was initially built in the USSR as the base of the Soviet space programme. It was later leased by Russia from the Kazakhstan government after the fall of the Soviet Union. 

•The first-ever artificial satellite, Sputnik 1, was launched from the facility. 

Background

Ever since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1990, the Russian space sector has lagged behind other international competitors including the United States. This was due to several corruption scandals and technological stagnation.

In an unfortunate situation in 2018, a Russian Soyuz rocket carrying a Russian cosmonaut and a NASA astronaut failed mid-flight, forcing the crew to carry out an emergency landing. Both the astronauts survived without injuries.