Video: Soyuz Rocket Blasts Off on Multi-Orbit Cluster Mission
A Russian Soyuz 2-1A / Fregat-M launch vehicle lifted off from Site 31/6 at the Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan at 6:36:49 UTC on July 14, 2017 on a lengthy ascent mission with 73 satellites. Soyuz successfully completed its nine-minute role in the mission, dispatching the Fregat-M upper stage on an 8-hour and 42-minute mission to deploy the satellites into three different orbits between 465 and 600 Kilometers in altitude. Friday’s mission carried the 600-Kilogram Kanopus remote sensing satellite, five microsatellites from Germany, Japan, Norway & Canada, and 67 CubeSats for operators from Russia and the U.S.