After the separation from the Soyuz-2.1b carrier rocket the Fregat upper successfully launched the Glonass-M satellite into orbit, an official with the Defense Ministry told reporters on Sunday.
“The Soyuz-2.1b carrier rocket that was launched from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome on Saturday, November 3 at 23:17 Moscow time, has successfully launched the Russian navigation spacecraft Glonass-M into the calculated orbit at a set time,” the official said.
This is the fourth launch of a Soyuz-2 carrier rocket from Plesetsk Cosmodrome in 2018
Flight tests of the Soyuz-2 space launch complex began at Plesetsk in the autumn of 2004. Over the past 14 years, 36 launches of the Soyuz-2 carrier rockets (modernization stages 1a, 1b and 1b) have been conducted from the northern cosmodrome, including the launch on Saturday.
The Soyuz-2 rocket replaced the Soyuz-U carriers, which was launched from Plesetsk from 1973 to 2012. In total, 435 Soyuz-U missiles were launched from the cosmodrome, about 430 vehicles were launched into orbit.