The Fregat booster with a military spacecraft separated from the Soyuz-2.1b carrier rocket that was launched on Thursday from the Plesetsk spaceport in Russia’s northwestern Arkhangelsk region, the press service of the Russian defense ministry said.
"The Fregat booster and a spacecraft launched in the interests of the Russian defense ministry separated from the third stage of the Soyuz-2.1b carrier rocket at 04:18 a.m. Moscow time as scheduled," it said, adding that it will take several hours to put the satellite in its designated orbit.
The Soyuz-2.1b carrier rocket was launched by Russia’s aerospace forces from the Plestesk spaceport at 04:09 a.m. Moscow time on Thursday.
It was the 51st launch of a Soyuz-2 carrier rocket by the Russian aerospace forces. Test flights of Soyuz-2 rockets that replaced Soyuz-U carrier vehicles began from Plesetsk in 2004. As many as 435 Soyuz-U rockets were launched from Plesetsk from 1973 to 2012.
