Soyuz rocket launches satellite for Russian Defense Ministry

A Soyuz-2.1v light-class rocket launched a spacecraft designed for the Russian Defense Ministry into orbit. This was announced on Tuesday, August 2, in the department of information and mass communications of the military department.

“The Soyuz-2.1v light-class carrier rocket successfully launched a spacecraft into the calculated orbit in the interests of the Russian Ministry of Defense at the set time,” the message says, Izvestiya reports.

The department noted that the launch of the rocket and the launch of the spacecraft into orbit took place in the normal mode. The device was assigned the serial number "Cosmos-2558".

The Soyuz-2.1v rocket was launched from the Plesetsk cosmodrome in the Arkhangelsk region on Monday, August 1, at 23:25 Moscow time. The Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation reported that the launch was carried out by a combat crew of the space troops of the Aerospace Forces.

Earlier, on July 23, it became known that the Soyuz-2 launch vehicle was scheduled to be launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in the first ten days of August . It was noted that the rocket will put the apparatus into orbit in the interests of a commercial foreign customer.

On July 7, the Soyuz-2.1b carrier rocket with the Russian navigation satellite Glonass-K was launched from the Plesetsk cosmodrome.

Prior to that, on June 3, the Soyuz-2.1a rocket with the Progress MS-20 truck was launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome. It was noted that a 3D printer developed by the Rocket and Space Corporation (RKK) Energia and nanosatellites are on board the ship.

The first launch of Soyuz-2 in Russia took place on February 5, 2022. The Russian Aerospace Forces launched Soyuz-2.1a with the spacecraft of the Russian Defense Ministry, which was supposed to be launched into orbit. The agency clarified that the pre-launch operations, as well as the launch, were normal.