The Arianespace Soyuz ST-B rocket launched the next set of four O3b communication satellites into orbit on Friday. The spacecraft are heading to a constellation that is already populated by 12 of the birds controlled by O3b Networks. Lift off from the European Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana was slightly delayed due to upper level winds, before finally lifting off at 17:10 UTC.

This launch was designated as Soyuz Flight VS18 in Arianespace’s numbering system, denoting the 18th flight of the Russian-built launch vehicle since its introduction at the Spaceport in October 2011.

The more powerful Soyuz-ST configuration is the standard version launched from French Guiana, with the additional performance provided by the Soyuz ST-B variant – including a Fregat-MT upper stage.

The Soyuz-2 was developed from the older Soyuz models and features digital flight control systems and modernized engines. It first flew in 2004.

Two variants are currently in service; the Soyuz-2-1a, and the Soyuz-2-1b which features an RD-0124 third stage engine which provides additional thrust. The RD-0124 was declared operational on 3 May 2011.

A third configuration, the Soyuz-2-1v, has since joined the Soyuz family. It features an NK-33 engine in place of the RD-108A used on the core stages of the other configurations, and does not include the strapon boosters used by other configurations.

The Soyuz-2 forms the basis for the Soyuz-ST rocket, which is optimised to fly from Kourou, and also incorporates a flight termination system and a modified telemetry system.

With the Soyuz ST-B utilizing the RD-0124 third stage engine, an additional 34 seconds of specific impulse (Isp) significantly increases the vehicle’s overall launch performance.

The RD-0124 is a staged-combustion engine powered by a multi-stage turbopump, which is spun by gas from combustion of the main propellants in a gas generator. These oxygen-rich combustion gases are recovered to feed the four main combustion chambers where kerosene – coming from the regenerative cooling circuit – is injected.

Attitude control is provided by main engine activation along one axis in two planes. Liquid oxygen (LOX) and kerosene tanks are pressurized by the heating and evaporation of helium coming from storage vessels located in the LOX tank.

Avionics for the Soyuz launcher are carried in the vehicle’s third stage, and are located in an intermediate bay between the oxidizer and fuel tanks.

As part of the Soyuz’ upgrades for its operations from the Spaceport, the launcher’s flight control system is modernized with a digital control system.

This system incorporates a digital computer and inertial measurement unit that are based on proven technology – giving the Soyuz improved navigation accuracy and control capability.

The new digital control system provides a more flexible and efficient attitude control system, and it gives the additional flight control authority required for the new, enlarged Soyuz ST payload fairing.

In addition, it improves flight accuracy for the Soyuz’ first three stages, and provides the ability to perform in-flight roll maneuvers as well as in-plane yaw steering (dog-leg) maneuvers.

The Fregat upper stage is an autonomous and flexible upper stage designed to operate as an orbital vehicle. Flight qualified in 2000, it extends the Soyuz launcher’s capability to provide access to a full range of orbits (medium-Earth orbit, Sun-synchronous orbit, geostationary transfer orbit, and Earth escape trajectories).

Fregat consists of six spherical tanks arrayed in a circle (four for propellant, two containing the avionics), with trusses passing through the tanks to provide structural support. The stage is independent from the Soyuz’ lower three stages, having its own guidance, navigation, control, tracking, and telemetry systems.

The Fregat uses storable propellants (UDMH/NTO) and can be restarted up to 20 times in flight – enabling it to carry out complex mission profiles. It can provide 3-axis stabilization or perform a spin-up of the spacecraft payload.

The Fregat first flew in 2000, and has been used on Soyuz-U, Soyuz-FG, Soyuz-2 and Zenit rockets.

The launch was performed from the purpose-built ZLS launch facility for Soyuz – located in the Spaceport’s northern sector near the city of Sinnamary.

Construction of the launch site began in 2007, as Arianespace advanced their plans to add two launch vehicles to their family. (See large set of construction photos in L2).

The Spaceport’s Soyuz launch site combines the proven design elements from the long-existing site at Baikonur Cosmodrome with satellite integration procedures that are in concert with the spacecraft processing used for Ariane missions.

Located 12 kilometers northwest from the existing Ariane 5 launch complex, the new Soyuz facility extends the Spaceport’s operational zone further up the French Guiana coastline.

The launch vehicle’s assembly building is 92 meters long, 41 meters wide, and 22 meters tall, allowing the vehicle to be assembled horizontally, prior to rolling out to the launch site, which is configured after the Russian Baikonur and Plesetsk Cosmodromes, albeit with a new mobile launch service tower.

The Soyuz’ transfer to the Spaceport’s launch zone is performed with the launcher riding horizontally atop a transporter/erector rail car.

Soyuz was then raised into position on the pad, and in contrast with the Baikonur Cosmodrome processing flow, is protected by a gantry that moves into place for payload integration.

The latest O3b Networks spacecraft were deployed by Soyuz into a circular orbit at an altitude of 8,062 km. – which is four-times closer to Earth than traditional geostationary satellites, providing substantial performance benefits due to lower latency or delay.

The current constellation of 12 O3b MEO satellites was orbited by Arianespace, utilizing its medium-lift Soyuz workhorse to carry four spacecraft each on launches that began in June 2013, and was followed by missions in July and December 2014.

The latest four satellites are named FM-13, 14, 15 and 16.

O3b Networks initiated commercial service on its state-of-the-art constellation across the Pacific, Africa, the Middle East and Asia in September of this year, and it already is delivering high quality connectivity to customers across the globe.

O3b’s Ka-band satellites were built by prime contractor Thales Alenia Space. The total flight duration to get them to their separation point will take two hours and 22 minutes.

The spacecraft have a trapezoidal-shaped main body, which helped facilitate their integration on the payload system, which is a tube-shaped dispenser system, with the satellites mated to the upper and lower attach points.</s>A Russian-made Soyuz rocket was successfully launched from the Guiana Space Centre in Kourou, French Guiana, on Friday. The rocket carries four O3b Medium Earth Orbit (MEO) communication satellites, operated by the SES Networks. The Soyuz craft is also fitted with another Russian-made module – Fregat-MT upper stage – which is expected to put the satellites into their designated orbits. The Soyuz launch vehicles have been used at the Kourou spaceport since 2011, where Russian Glavcosmos and French Arianespace work in cooperation. Friday’s launch was the eighteenth launch of the Soyuz family of rockets from the space center, and the fourth time it has carried the O3b satellites.</s>Four additional spacecraft for SES’ O3b Medium Earth Orbit (MEO) satellite constellation were orbited today by a Soyuz launch from French Guiana, supporting a long-time Arianespace customer and underscoring the medium-lift workhorse launcher’s suitability for a full range of missions.

Departing from the Spaceport’s ELS launch complex near the city of Sinnamary, and ascending into clear skies over French Guiana, Soyuz deployed its four passengers during a flight of approximately 2 hrs., 22 min. This included the propulsion of Soyuz’ first three stages, as well as four burns of its Fregat upper stage.

Today’s launch was Soyuz’ 18th from French Guiana since it began service at the Spaceport in 2011, and was designated Flight VS18 in Arianespace’s launcher family numbering system.

Impressive numbers for the SES/Arianespace relationship

 

 In post-launch comments at the Spaceport, Luce Fabreguettes, Arianespace’s Executive Vice President Missions, Operations & Purchasing, noted that the mission’s payloads are the 54th, 55th, 56th and 57th spacecraft orbited by Arianespace for global satellite operator SES – extending an exceptional partnership that dates back to 1988.

O3b spacecraft are utilized by the SES Networks operation of SES to provide low latency, fiber-like connectivity in the growing mobility, fixed data and government markets. These trapezoidal-shaped Ka-band relay platforms, produced by Thales Alenia Space, have a liftoff mass of 700 kg. each.

Speaking from the Spaceport after the mission’s completion, SES Chief Technology Officer Martin Halliwell confirmed that ground tracking stations acquired signals from all four satellites lofted by Flight VS18, and thanked Arianespace for the successful launch. “This important mission increases our capacity in Medium Earth Orbit by 38 percent,” he said.

Halliwell noted that SES would be back at the Spaceport in early 2019 with the next four O3b satellites.

The passengers on today’s flight will join the 12 O3b satellites already in orbit, launched by Arianespace using its medium-lift Soyuz workhorse that carries four spacecraft on each launch. The previous missions were performed in June 2013, July 2014 and December 2014. Positioned at approximately 8,000 km., the O3b satellites are some four-times-closer to Earth than geostationary-orbit satellites.

The four newly-launched satellites will enable SES Networks to offer more capacity, enhanced coverage, increased efficiencies and greater reliability while delivering carrier-grade services to telecommunications operators, mobile network operators, enterprises, internet service providers and government customers.

After today’s Flight VS18, Arianespace has five more SES satellites in its backlog, comprising four additional spacecraft for SES Networks’ O3b constellation, and the all-electric SES-17 – to be used by SES for high-speed inflight connectivity and high-powered data services.

 

 Thales Alenia Space-built satellites on Flight VS18

 

 In comments after Flight VS18, Arianespace’s Luce Fabreguettes also offered her congratulations to Thales Alenia Space, another long-time partner that produced the four O3b spacecraft lofted on today’s Soyuz mission. “With 154 Thales Alenia Space produced satellites orbited since 1981 by Arianespace, and 11 more in our backlog, we will certainly continue to partner for many common successes,” she added.

Patrick Mauté, Thales Alenia Space’s Chief Technical Officer, said the Soyuz launcher “operated like clockwork – perfectly,” and complemented the launch teams’ “skills, competency, and great talent,” adding they were the keys to today’s successful launch.

Flight VS18 was Arianespace’s second mission in 2018 with a member of its complete launcher family – which also includes the heavyweight Ariane 5 and light-lift Vega. It continues a busy year of activity for Arianespace, which has identified a total of 14 launch opportunities from the Spaceport.

Arianespace’s next mission is Flight VA242 with an Ariane 5, which will carry a dual-payload to geostationary transfer orbit (GTO) that includes the HYLAS 4 satellite for Avanti.</s>An Ariane 5 rocket has launched four additional Galileo satellites, accelerating deployment of the new satellite navigation system.

The Ariane 5, operated by Arianespace, lifted off from Europe’s Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana at 13:06 GMT (14:06 CET, 10:06 local time) carrying Galileo satellites 15–18. The first pair was released 3 hours 35 minutes and 44 seconds after liftoff, while the second separated 20 minutes later.

The Galileos are at their target altitude, after a flawless release from the new dispenser designed to handle four satellites.

Over the next few days, engineers will nudge the satellites into their final working orbits and begin tests to ensure they are ready to join the constellation. This is expected to take six months or so.

This mission brings the Galileo system to 18 satellites.

The satellites already in orbit will allow the European Commission to declare the start of initial services, expected towards year’s end.

The previous 14 satellites were launched two at a time using the Soyuz–Fregat rocket.

“Now that we can rely on the powerful Ariane 5, we can anticipate the quicker completion of Galileo deployment, permitting the system to enter full operation,” remarked Paul Verhoef, ESA’s Director for the Galileo Programme and Navigation-related Activities.

Two additional Ariane 5 launches are scheduled in 2017 and 2018. The full system of 24 satellites plus spares is expected to be in place by 2020.

“With this 75th successful launch in a row, Ariane-5 sets a new record within European developed launchers and proves once more its reliability, ” said Daniel Neuenschwander, ESA’s Director for Launchers.

Galileo is Europe’s civil global satellite navigation system. It will allow users worldwide to know their exact position in time and space with great precision and reliability. Once complete, the system will consist of 24 operational satellites and the ground infrastructure for the provision of positioning, navigation and timing services.

The Galileo programme is funded and owned by the EU. The European Commission has the overall responsibility for the programme, managing and overseeing the implementation of all programme activities.

Galileo’s deployment, the design and development of the new generation of systems and the technical development of infrastructure are entrusted to ESA. The definition, development and in-orbit validation phases were carried out by ESA, and co-funded by ESA and the European Commission.

The European Global Navigation Satellite System Agency (GSA) is ensuring the uptake and security of Galileo. Galileo operations and provision of services will be entrusted to the GSA from 2017.

The European Space Agency (ESA) provides Europe’s gateway to space.

ESA is an intergovernmental organisation, created in 1975, with the mission to shape the development of Europe’s space capability and ensure that investment in space delivers benefits to the citizens of Europe and the world.

ESA has 22 Member States: Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom, of whom 20 are Member States of the EU.

ESA has established formal cooperation with seven other Member States of the EU. Canada takes part in some ESA programmes under a Cooperation Agreement.

By coordinating the financial and intellectual resources of its members, ESA can undertake programmes and activities far beyond the scope of any single European country. It is working in particular with the EU on implementing the Galileo and Copernicus programmes.

ESA develops the launchers, spacecraft and ground facilities needed to keep Europe at the forefront of global space activities.

Today, it develops and launches satellites for Earth observation, navigation, telecommunications and astronomy, sends probes to the far reaches of the Solar System and cooperates in the human exploration of space.</s>A Russian Soyuz rocket lifted off Friday from French Guiana with four broadband satellites for the O3b network, which provides high-speed connectivity to developing countries, ships and other customers who lack a reliable Internet link.

The Soyuz-2.1b booster launched at 1710:06 GMT (12:10:06 p.m. EST; 2:10:06 p.m. French Guiana time) from its purpose-built pad at the Guiana Space Center. The mission, managed by Arianespace, aimed to place the four O3b satellites into a circular orbit nearly 5,000 miles (8,000 kilometers) above the equator.

Owned by SES of Luxembourg, the O3b satellites will join 12 others already in orbit that were launched on three previous Soyuz missions in 2013 and 2014.

Read our Mission Status Center for details on the flight.</s>Four satellites set to join O3b’s expanding broadband network successfully launched Friday on top of a Russian-built Soyuz booster from French Guiana, joining 12 other craft linking developing nations, far-flung islands, cruise ships and other hard-to-reach locales with the Internet.

Mounted on a carrying dispenser inside the Soyuz rocket’s nose cone, the four O3b spacecraft will grow the satellite-based broadband network’s reach and coverage, answering demand for more bandwidth from the initiative’s current and prospective customers.

The satellites lifted off at 1710:06 GMT (12:10:06 p.m. EST; 2:10:06 p.m. French Guiana time) from the Guiana Space Center, a spaceport carved from the edge of the Amazon rainforest on the northeastern coast of South America. A Soyuz-2.1b rocket pushed the O3b payloads into a mostly sunny sky after 33-minute delay to allow for improved wind conditions aloft.

The Soyuz booster pitched on a downrange trajectory east from the European-run space center, and dropped four kerosene-fueled first stage boosters into the Atlantic Ocean around two minutes after liftoff. Engines on the Soyuz core stage and third stage fired in succession, and a Russian Fregat upper stage ignited to place the O3b satellites into a preliminary parking orbit.

Two more Fregat upper stage burns placed the O3b payloads close to their targeted deployment altitude of 4,865 miles (7,830 kilometers) above the equator.

The first pair of O3b satellites released from the Fregat upper stage at 1911 GMT (2:11 p.m. EST), followed by a brief rocket firing to move to a nearby position for separation of the other two spacecraft at 1932 GMT (2:32 p.m. EST).

Officials confirmed all four satellites, built by Thales Alenia Space, established contact with ground teams a few minutes later. The reception of telemetry verified the spacecraft were in the correct orbit and healthy following the launch.

Arianespace, the French company in charge of Soyuz launch operations at the Guiana Space Center, declared the mission a success.

“Arianespace is delighted to announce that the four O3b satellites have been safely separated as planned in their targeted Medium Earth Orbit,” said Luce Fabreguettes, the launch company’s executive vice president for missions, operations and purchasing.

Friday’s launch was the 18th time a Russian Soyuz rocket has lifted off from French Guiana since October 2011, and the 1,885th flight by a Soyuz rocket variant overall.

The flight plan for the satellites called for each craft to extend its power-generating solar panels, then complete a series of in-orbit checks. The spacecraft will slightly raise their altitudes to join the other 12 satellites in the O3b fleet, then enter commercial service by mid-May.

“We are very excited to have four more O3b satellites in orbit, and we look forward to them joining the constellation in May and serving our customers around the globe,” said Steve Collar, the CEO of SES Networks who will take over as chief executive of the overall SES enterprise next month. “The demand for high performance bandwidth and networks continues to grow and, as the only successful non-geostationary broadband system, we need these new satellites to fulfil demand across a wide range of verticals and applications.”

The four new satellites join 12 others launched on three previous Soyuz rocket flights from French Guiana in 2013 and 2014.

SES completed the purchase of 100 percent of O3b Networks’ ownership in 2016, soon after O3b ordered eight additional satellites from Thales Alenia Space in response to growing demand. The next four O3b craft will launch on another Soyuz mission from French Guiana in early 2019.

The O3b satellites carry Ka-band broadband beams to relay high-speed Internet connectivity to far-flung communities, industrial facilities and mobile users.

“From connecting underserved communities and meaningfully transforming lives through improved broadband access, to delivering state of the art satellite-enabled network services to ships, planes and government platforms, our O3b fleet offers unique and differentiated performance and is driving our customers’ businesses forward,” Collar said in a press release.

The O3b network provides connectivity to conventional Internet Service Providers, governments, schools and universities, remote factories, oil and gas platforms, humanitarian missions, resorts and the maritime industry, including luxury cruise ships owned by Royal Caribbean.

The O3b satellites fly in a medium-altitude orbit more than four times closer to Earth than the geostationary belt more than 22,000 miles (nearly 36,000 kilometers) over the equator, where most large telecommunications craft reside. That reduces the latency of an Internet connection established through the O3b satellites, or the time required for a user to send a request and get a response.

The idea behind O3b, which was named for the “Other 3 billion” people without reliable Internet access, was to use satellites to link places difficult to reach with terrestrial fiber networks.

From Medium Earth Orbit, the O3b satellites cover a swath of the planet ranging between approximately 45 degrees north and south latitude.

SES Networks says the O3b network has beamed Internet signals for the U.S. Department of Defense and the United Nations, and provided connectivity to numerous island nations: Palau, Micronesia, Kiribati, Nauru, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, the Cook Islands, East Timor and America Samoa.

African markets have also taken up O3b usage, with Internet services beamed to Chad, South Sudan, Somalia, the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Cameroon, Angola and Madagascar.

The Galapagos Islands and Easter Island have also received Internet services through the O3b satellites, along with parts of Peru and the Amazon basin in Brazil.

The satellites launched Friday will add 38 percent to O3b’s broadband capacity, officials said. They also debut an improved antenna design and a better encryption standard, offering a performance upgrade over the original 12 O3b satellites.

“There’s not one segment that’s really driven us to do this,” said John-Paul Hemingway, executive vice president of product, marketing and strategy at SES Networks. “All the (market) segments are doing well, but we just needed more capacity. We have actually pre-sold some of this capacity, but there’s a lot more capacity available with this (additional) 38 percent to react to customer growth.

“Of course, we’re very positive about that because we are planning to launch another four satellites within the next 12 months, some time in the first half of ’19,” Hemingway said in a phone interview with Spaceflight Now.

“This was the fourth launch performed by Arianespace for our O3b fleet and we have yet another batch of O3b satellites planned for 2019 on their Soyuz rocket as well,” said Martin Halliwell, chief technology officer at SES. “This is the beauty of our MEO constellation: it can easily be scaled to respond to demand in an agile manner while beams can be allocated dynamically to where the demand is, and thus deliver low-latency connectivity where our customers need it. By augmenting our fleet, we will offer more throughput, more coverage, and more capabilities to our customers.”

SES last year announced an upgraded network that will begin launching in 2021.

The O3b mPower fleet will consist of seven satellites built by Boeing that will launch into the same roughly 5,000-mile-high (8,000-kilometer) orbit currently occupied by the first-generation O3b satellites.

Once operational, the O3b mPower network will reach many more parts of the world, meeting the entire data traffic needs of some small countries, SES officials said when they unveiled the program in September.

Billed as the first “multi-terabit” satellite constellation, O3b mPower will multiply the capability of the current-generation O3b fleet. Each O3b mPower satellite will carry 4,000 Ka-band beams, up from 10 on each of the current O3b spacecraft.</s>Arianespace said its Soyuz rocket successfully launched four broadband satellites into space from the Guiana Space Center near Kourou.

"Four additional spacecraft for SES' O3b Medium Earth Orbit (MEO) satellite constellation were orbited (Friday) by a Soyuz launch from French Guiana, supporting a long-time Arianespace customer and underscoring the medium-lift workhorse launcher's suitability for a full range of missions," the Courcouronnes, France-based company said in a statement on its Web site.</s>Arianespace successfully conducted its second launch this year on Friday, March 9 lofting four O3b communications satellites to orbit.

The mission, designated VS18, employed a Russian-built Soyuz ST-B rocket which lifted off from the Soyuz Launch Complex (ELS) at 16:37 GMT (11:37 a.m. EST) on Friday, March 9.

The Soyuz ST-B was rolled out to the launch pad a few days earlier, on March 2 as the VS18 mission was initially scheduled to be launched March 6. However, Arianespace decided to postpone the launch in order to “…enable additional checks as part of the resumption of launches from the Spaceport in French Guiana.”

The countdown campaign commenced approximately five hours ahead of the scheduled liftoff when it was decided that the launch vehicle was ready for fueling operations. The conclusive phase of the campaign started some five minutes before the launch, when the rocket’s Fregat upper stage was switched to onboard power.

Sixteen seconds after the ignition of its four strap-on boosters (affixed to the rocket’s first stage) the Soyuz ST-B thundered off the launch pad and completed a short vertical ascent. The first phase of the flight lasted almost two minutes, until about T+1:58 minutes when the strap-on boosters were jettisoned, leaving the launch vehicle powered by its second stage alone.

About two minutes later, the protective payload fairing was detached from the Ariane 5, unveiling the mission’s four passengers.

The central core separated from the assembly some four minutes and 47 seconds into the flight and the propulsion for the flight was provided by the third stage, which burned for about four and half minutes.

After the separation of the third stage, the rocket’s Fregat upper stage was ignited, this marked the start of a two-hour trek to deliver the payload into targeted circular orbit at an altitude of 4,865 miles (7,830 kilometers).

The Fregat upper stage conducted three engine burns in order to deploy the first two O3b satellites into orbit about two hours and one minute into the flight.

Afterward, the upper stage completed one more burn and released the remaining two satellites two hours and 22 minutes after liftoff.

Built by Thales Alenia Space, each O3b satellite weighs around 1,543 lbs. (700 kilograms) and has dimensions of 25.3 x 10.5 x 5.57 feet (7.72 x 3.2 x 1.7 meters). The spacecraft is based on the ELiTeBus-1000 platform and has two deployable solar arrays capable of generating up to 2,482 W of power during its planned operational lifetime of 10 years.

The quartet of the newly launched O3b satellites will be operated by O3b Networks, a subsidiary of the Luxembourg-based satellite operator SES. The four new spacecraft will reside in a medium-Earth orbit (MEO) from this vantage point they should provide high-speed connectivity to people and businesses in growing mobility, fixed data and government markets. For this purpose, each satellite of the quartet is fitted with 12 Ka-band transponders designed to enable the high speed flow of data between locations on the ground.

If everything goes as envisioned, the VS18 mission should expanded the constellation of O3b satellites currently in orbit from 12 to 16 spacecraft. The new quarter are designed to generally focus on providing more capacity, enhanced coverage, increased efficiency and greater reliability while delivering carrier-grade services including MEF Carrier Ethernet 2.0 certified services to telecommunications operators, mobile network operators, enterprises, Internet service providers and government customers.

“In addition to the O3b satellites’ throughput capabilities and low latency, a unique feature of the O3b constellation is that it is easily scalable and is designed to be expanded in response to demand. Demand for reliable fiber-like connectivity has never been higher, and we are excited that our satellites can play a key role in connecting people, communities, and improving their lives,” said Martin Halliwell, Chief Technology Officer at SES.

The first batch of four O3b satellites was delivered into space on June 25, 2013 by another Soyuz ST-B rocket.

The Soyuz ST-B launcher that was employed for Friday’s mission is a four-stage launch vehicle that is composed of four boosters affixed to its first stage, a central core (second stage), a third stage, and a restartable Fregat upper stage. It also includes a payload adapter/dispenser and fairing.

Friday’s mission was Arianespace’s second launch of 2018 as well as the second mission that got its start from Kourou this year. The company’s next planned flight is currently scheduled for March 21 when the Superbird-B3/DSN-1 and HYLAS-4 communications satellites are slated to be send aloft atop an Ariane 5 rocket.</s>Moscow,July15:An imaging satellite and 72 micro-satellites were launched into orbit Friday from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, the Russian space agency Roscosmos and research centre Glavcosmos announced.

The Soyuz 2-1A rocket successfully lifted off at 0643 GMT with the satellite payload, Roscosmos said in a statement.

According to Russian news agencies, Glavcosmos, charged with putting the satellites into orbit, later reported that by 1441 GMT all the satellites had successfully separated. They were released into three different orbits.

“For the first time in the world, such a complex and large mission has been developed and implemented,” said Glavcosmos.

The primary payload, the Kanopus-V-IK satellite, is to provide wide-angle images of the Earth and will be used especially to detect forest fires or to update the topography of maps.

The 72 small satellites include those made by Japan, Germany and Canada along with 62 nanosatellites known as CubeSats, developed by the United States.</s>Live coverage of the countdown and launch of a Soyuz rocket from French Guiana with four O3b commercial broadband communications satellite. Text updates will appear automatically below. Follow us on Twitter.

Arianespace’s live video stream begins at 1622 GMT (11:22 a.m. EST), and will be available on this page.
Arianespace launches mission VS18 from the Guiana Space Centre, a Soyuz rocket carrying a payload of four O3b communications satellites for SES.