MOSCOW, March 22. /TASS/: South Korea’s CAS500-1 Earth’s remote sensing satellite launched atop a Russian Soyuz-2.1a carrier rocket from the Baikonur Cosmodrome has been successfully delivered into the designated orbit with the help of the rocket’s Fregat booster, Russia’s State Space Corporation Roscosmos announced on Monday.
"After the thruster of the Fregat booster was ignited twice, the South Korean CAS500-1 Earth’s remote sensing satellite detached in the final orbit in the normal mode," Roscosmos said on its Twitter.
The first group of the hosted payload is expected to separate at 11:35 - 11:37 Moscow time and the second batch at 13:13 - 13:43 Moscow time, the Russian space agency said.
The Soyuz-2.1a carrier rocket with 38 satellites from 18 countries blasted off from the Baikonur spaceport in Kazakhstan at 09:07 Moscow time. In about nine minutes after the lift-off, the rocket’s upper stage comprising the Fregat booster and the satellites separated from the carrier’s third stage.
The launch was initially planned for March 20 but was rescheduled for the back-up date shortly before the blast-off. As Roscosmos Chief Dmitry Rogozin told TASS, the launch was rescheduled due to a problem with the ground equipment that was subsequently eliminated.
The Soyuz-2.1a carrier rocket is also due to orbit Japan’s ELSA-d space junk removal craft, the Japanese GRUS Earth’s remote sensing micro-satellites, Saudi Arabia’s NAJM-1 Earth imaging and communications small satellite and communications satellites of Berlin Technical University.
The Soyuz carrier rocket will also put into orbit the first D33 satellite of Russia’s Higher School of Economics National Research University, a CubeSat developed by the Sirius Center and the Higher School of Economics National Research University and also an OrbiCraft-Zorky satellite belonging to the Russian private space company Sputnix.
