{"id":15557,"date":"2016-04-28T18:21:11","date_gmt":"2016-04-28T10:21:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/first-launch-from-russias-new-cosmodrome-declared-a-success\/"},"modified":"2016-04-28T18:21:11","modified_gmt":"2016-04-28T10:21:11","slug":"first-launch-from-russias-new-cosmodrome-declared-a-success","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/first-launch-from-russias-new-cosmodrome-declared-a-success\/","title":{"rendered":"First launch from Russia\u2019s new cosmodrome declared a success"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"678\" height=\"381\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/b-1AoE4R4w8?start=182&amp;feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>A Soyuz rocket streaked into sunny skies over a new multibillion-dollar Siberian spaceport Thursday with Russian President Vladimir Putin watching from a nearby viewing stand, opening another gateway to space for satellites, and eventually cosmonaut crews.<\/p>\n<p>The Soyuz-2.1a rocket took off from the Vostochny Cosmodrome with three satellites at 0201 GMT Thursday (10:01 p.m. EDT Wednesday), one day after a technical glitch scrubbed the launch in the final minutes of the countdown.<\/p>\n<p>Vostochny\u2019s construction began in 2011, four years after Putin approved the spaceport\u2019s development. The cosmodrome has been one of Putin\u2019s top domestic priorities, with an eye toward shifting more Russian space launches from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan to launch facilities on the country\u2019s home territory.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI&nbsp;would like to&nbsp;congratulate you all. We have reason to&nbsp;be proud,\u201d Putin said at&nbsp;a&nbsp;meeting with rocket launch team and&nbsp;Roscosmos representatives, according to a statement released by the Kremlin. \u201cThis is definitely a&nbsp;very important and&nbsp;significant step forward in&nbsp;the&nbsp;development of&nbsp;the&nbsp;Russian cosmonautics.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Located in Russia\u2019s Amur region near the Chinese border, Vostochny sits about 3,400 miles (5,500 kilometers) from Moscow, not far from an abandoned Soviet-era missile base called Svobodny, which itself hosted a handful of satellite launches.<\/p>\n<p>Vostochny will eventually have a launch pad for Russia\u2019s future heavy-lift Angara rocket, a booster designed to replace the Proton launcher, and accommodations for human spaceflights. The first Angara launch from Vostochny is targeted for 2021 \u2014 all Angara test flights will take off from Russia\u2019s Plesetsk Cosmodrome until then \u2014 and crewed missions could begin launching from the new cosmodrome in 2023, according to plans released by Roscosmos, the Russian space agency.<\/p>\n<p>Thursday\u2019s launch is the only mission on the manifest at the partially-built cosmodrome this year, but its success offers a counter to critics who note construction delays at Vostochny and widespread corruption among the launch base\u2019s contractors.<\/p>\n<p>Putin told reporters before Thursday\u2019s launch that contractors found guilty of crimes will face prison sentences.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf their guilt of the suspected of crimes is proven, they\u2019ll have to swap their warm beds at home for prison bunks,\u201d Putin said, according to a report by Russia\u2019s Interfax news agency.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_14742\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-14742\" style=\"width: 676px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-14742\" src=\"http:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/F7H9RyHTiu9UIZqPF1snB9AbBG6RIkxB.jpg\" alt=\"Russian President Vladimir Putin watches Thursday's launch at the Vostochny Cosmodrome. Credit: Kremlin\" width=\"676\" height=\"417\" srcset=\"https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/F7H9RyHTiu9UIZqPF1snB9AbBG6RIkxB.jpg 940w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/F7H9RyHTiu9UIZqPF1snB9AbBG6RIkxB-300x185.jpg 300w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/F7H9RyHTiu9UIZqPF1snB9AbBG6RIkxB-768x474.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 676px) 100vw, 676px\"><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-14742\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Russian President Vladimir Putin watches Thursday\u2019s launch at the Vostochny Cosmodrome. Credit: Kremlin<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>But the mood Thursday was one of celebration.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAs&nbsp;they say, the&nbsp;proof is in&nbsp;the&nbsp;pudding,\u201d Putin told the launch team in congratulatory remarks after Thursday\u2019s mission. \u201cYou need a&nbsp;successful first launch to&nbsp;prove that the&nbsp;space center is ready for&nbsp;work. You have done it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Workers raced to complete the first phase of the Vostochny project in time for a first launch by the end of 2015, the date targeted when construction began, but officials in October delayed the Soyuz fight until this month as construction progress ran behind schedule.<\/p>\n<p>Facilities finished in time for Thursday\u2019s liftoff included a satellite processing clean room, a hangar for assembly of Soyuz rockets, and the Soyuz launch pad at Vostochny, featuring a huge concrete flame trench and a mobile gantry with a mural of Russian cosmonaut hero Yuri Gagarin.<\/p>\n<p>Next up will be the completion of a space city with schools, mid-rise apartment blocks,&nbsp;rail and road links and other amenities for the cosmodrome\u2019s workforce, which could number in the tens of thousands of engineers, technicians and support personnel.<\/p>\n<p>Building the Angara launch pad at Vostochny is also on the to-do list.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe&nbsp;construction teams still have much to&nbsp;do yet,\u201d Putin said Thursday. \u201cThe&nbsp;first stage has been completed, but there are more stages ahead. As&nbsp;you know, we plan to&nbsp;build new infrastructure for&nbsp;heavy carrier rockets. We are also considering building infrastructure for&nbsp;super-heavy rockets and&nbsp;manned missions here. I&nbsp;am confident that together we will accomplish this task.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The civilian-operated Vostochny complex covers an area of 270 square miles (700 square kilometers) \u2014 about the size of Singapore \u2014 and Roscosmos says it will cost&nbsp;180 billion rubles, or $2.7 billion, when finished.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_14739\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-14739\" style=\"width: 676px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-14739\" src=\"http:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/5100280740.jpg\" alt=\"A Soyuz rocket lifts off for the first time from its new launch pad at the Vostochny Cosmodrome in Russia's Far East. Credit: SpaceX\" width=\"676\" height=\"451\" srcset=\"https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/5100280740.jpg 1600w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/5100280740-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/5100280740-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/5100280740-1024x683.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 676px) 100vw, 676px\"><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-14739\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">A Soyuz rocket lifts off for the first time from its new launch pad at the Vostochny Cosmodrome in Russia\u2019s Far East. Credit: SpaceX<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The Soyuz-2.1a rocket \u2014 its engines guzzling a combination of kerosene and liquid oxygen propellants \u2014 took off Thursday and rolled on a course north-northwest from Vostochny, heading to a polar orbit with three satellites on-board.<\/p>\n<p>The launcher\u2019s four strap-on boosters came off the rocket two minutes after liftoff, and moments later the Soyuz shed its aerodynamic nose done to reveal the three satellite passengers, all experimental spacecraft developed with the participation of Russian universities.<\/p>\n<p>A Volga upper stage detached from the Soyuz rocket\u2019s third stage less than nine minutes into the mission and started maneuvers to place the three satellites into orbit.<\/p>\n<p>The trio of payloads deployed from the Volga rocket stage 0407 GMT (12:07 a.m. EDT), Roscosmos said in a statement.<\/p>\n<p>U.S. military tracking data indicate the rocket put its satellite passengers into an orbit with a high point of about 300 miles (483 kilometers), a low point of 290 miles (468 kilometers), and an inclination of 97.3 degrees.<\/p>\n<p>Those parameters are close to preflight targets.<\/p>\n<p>The largest of the satellites sent into orbit Thursday will study high-energy cosmic rays and gamma-ray bursts, the most powerful explosions in the universe, which astronomers believe come from the collapse of massive stars at the end of their lives.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFrom the Earth\u2019s orbit, using a space experiment, we will first study the particles of the highest energies that exist in the universe,\u201d said Mikhail Panasyuk, director of the Skobeltsyn Research Institute of Nuclear Physics of the Lomonosov Moscow State University, which is managing the mission. \u201cWe observe an acceleration of cosmic particles called cosmic rays in the universe. The particles with the greatest energies are difficult to measure from the ground, because they are very few. Now we will do this with the space experiment on-board.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Named for&nbsp;Mikhailo Lomonosov, an 18th century Russian scientist and writer, the multipurpose spacecraft weighs more than 1,400 pounds (about 645 kilograms) and will also investigate Earth, attempting to pinpoint the origin of mysterious brilliant flashes of light in the upper atmosphere called transient luminous events.<\/p>\n<p>The flashes occur in milliseconds in a region of the atmosphere stretching up to 60 miles (100 kilometers) in altitude, making them hard to detect and study. But scientists believe they are linked to lightning in thunderstorms closer to the ground.<\/p>\n<p>The Mikhailo Lomonosov satellite is designed for a three-year lifetime in orbit.<\/p>\n<p>The 1,170-pound (531-kilogram) Aist 2D satellite, made by TsSKB Progress in partnership with Samara State Aerospace University, will demonstrate a new small spacecraft design with a high-resolution hyperspectral Earth imaging camera. Aist 2D also carries an innovative radar operating in P-band, a wavelength that penetrates through forest canopies and Earth\u2019s surface to study underground structures.<\/p>\n<p>Aist 2D\u2019s other science instruments will study the environment around the spacecraft and monitor how the satellite\u2019s components respond to the harsh temperature extremes, vacuum conditions and micrometeoroid and space debris impacts in orbit, according to TsSKB Progress.<\/p>\n<p>A shoebox-sized CubeSat named SamSat 218 also launched aboard the Soyuz rocket Thursday.<\/p>\n<p>Built by students at Samara State Aerospace University, SamSat 218 will pursue educational and technological tasks,&nbsp;including tests in how to control tiny satellites in orbit.<\/p>\n<p><b><i>Email the author.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n<p><em><strong>Follow Stephen Clark on Twitter: @StephenClark1.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A Soyuz rocket streaked into sunny skies over a new multibillion-dollar Siberian spaceport Thursday with Russian President Vladimir Putin watching from a nearby viewing stand, opening another gateway to space for satellites, and eventually cosmonaut crews. The Soyuz-2.1a rocket took off from the Vostochny Cosmodrome with three satellites at 0201 GMT Thursday (10:01 p.m. EDT [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[3715,1608,159,3716,234,352,3717,1302],"class_list":["post-15557","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-aist-2d","tag-cubesats","tag-earth-observation","tag-mikhailo-lomonosov","tag-roscosmos","tag-russia","tag-samsat-218","tag-soyuz"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15557"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15557"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15557\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15557"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15557"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15557"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}