Soyuz 2.1b/Fregat-M | Gonets-M27, Gonets-M28, Gonets-M29 and others
Launch Successful
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Sept. 28, 2020, 11:20 a.m.
Launch Window
Sept. 28, 2020, 11 a.m. - Sept. 28, 2020, 12:15 p.m.
Sept. 28, 2020, 11 a.m. - Sept. 28, 2020, 12:15 p.m.
Gonets-M are an upgraded version of Gonets satellites, derived from military communications system Strela-3. Gonets-M constellation is tasked with monitoring ecological and industrial objects, providing communication and data transmission services, covering also the remote areas like the Far North region. This launch also carries 22 small satellites as a rideshare payloads. These are cubesats for commercial companies such as Spire and Kepler Communications, as well as cubesats for various international universities.
Soyuz-2, GRAU index 14A14, is the collective designation for the 21st-century version of the Russian Soyuz rocket. In its basic form, it is a three-stage carrier rocket for placing payloads into low Earth orbit. The first-stage boosters and two core stages feature uprated engines with improved injection systems, compared to the previous versions of the Soyuz. Digital flight control and telemetry systems allow the rocket to be launched from a fixed launch platform, whereas the launch platforms for earlier Soyuz rockets had to be rotated as the rocket could not perform a roll to change its heading in flight.
The Russian Space Forces are a branch of the Russian Aerospace Forces, that provides aerospace warning, air sovereignty, and protection for Russia. Having been reestablished following August 1, 2015 merger between the Russian Air Force and the Russian Aerospace Defence Forces after a 2011 dissolving of the branch. The Russian Space Forces were originally formed on August 10, 1992 and the creation of the Russian Armed Forces.
WIKI
Kepler Communications launched Sept. 28 the first two satellites built in its own facility as it ramps up its constellation deployment.
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