A Soyuz-2.1b carrier rocket with the Meteor-M No. 2-4 spacecraft was launched from the Vostochny Cosmodrome into Earth orbit.
According to Roscosmos, eighteen additional Russian and foreign "piggyback small satellites" were launched along with them.
The launch at 08:43:26 Moscow time was successful. It is noted that the Soyuz-2.1b rocket performed nominally.
The Fregat upper stage has already separated from the third stage of the rocket and is now placing the spacecraft into their designated orbits.
Meteor-M No. 2-4 is a multifunctional satellite. Its responsibilities include:
- hydrometeorological support, climate and environmental monitoring;
- studying the Earth's natural resources;
- monitoring the helio-geophysical environment;
- receiving information from automatic measuring platforms for data collection and relaying signals from emergency radio beacons of the international COSPAS-SARSAT satellite search and rescue system.
This series of satellites also has special missions — all-weather radar monitoring of the Northern Sea Route and expansion of the range of controlled helio-geophysical parameters in near-Earth space.
