Russia sends 53 satellites to orbit on record-breaking launch (video) (Image Credit: Space.com)
Russia launched 53 small satellites into orbit on Monday (Nov. 4), a mix of Russian and international spacecraft.
A Soyuz-2.1b carrier rocket with a Fregat upper stage lifted off from the Vostochny spaceport in the Russian Far East at 6:18 p.m. EST on Monday (2318 GMT; or 2:18 a.m. on Nov. 5 local time).
“The hosted payload consisting of 49 Russian satellites, a Russian-Chinese satellite, a Russian-Zimbabwean satellite and two Iranian small satellites was delivered into the designated orbits and separated from the Fregat booster that was launched by a Soyuz-2.1b rocket from the Vostochny spaceport today,” the Russian space agency Roscosmos said in a statement, the Russian state-owned TASS news agency reported.
Roscosmos said that the 51 domestic satellites aboard the launch was a national record, according to TASS. Other rockets have launched more payloads in a single go. The overall record belongs to SpaceX, which sent 143 satellites up on a single Falcon 9 rocket in January 2021.
Related: Roscosmos: Russia’s space agency
Monday’s Soyuz launch included a pair of Ionosfera-M satellites, which will form a system for monitoring Earth’s ionosphere, Reuters reported. Each has a mass of 948 pounds (430 kilograms). The two Iranian satellites were Kowsar, for high-resolution imaging, and Hodhod, a communications satellite.
The launch was Russia’s 13th of 2024. While Russia was the most active country in terms of launch 10 years ago, its launch rate has fallen since. The United States, particularly through the SpaceX Falcon 9, and China have greatly increased their launch activity in recent years, leaving Russia a distant third in the global launch charts.
Russia still participates in the International Space Station and has launched Progress resupply and Soyuz crewed missions to the ISS this year.