The rocket started

On Thursday, February 1, from the Vostochny cosmodrome in the Amur Region, the third rocket was launched in its history, the correspondent of RBC reports.

The three-stage Soyuz-2.1a launch vehicle should deliver 11 spacecraft to near-earth orbit, RBC told Roskosmos press service. These are Canopus-V Earth remote sensing satellites No. 3 and 4 (the main payload), as well as 9 spacecraft as a load on commercial contracts (four American LEMUR type 3U CubeSat, four German S-NETs and one German D- Star One).

The rocket was launched at 11.07 local time (05.07 Moscow time), after two minutes there was a separation of the 1st stage. After another two minutes - at 11.11 - the Soyuz-2.1a missile should drop the head fairing, told RBC in the press service of Roskosmos. At 11.12 the second stage should be separated and the tail section will be dropped. At 11.16 the march propulsion system of the 3rd stage will be switched off, and then the head unit will be separated. The launch of the satellites will then continue the "Fregat" upper stage.

The spacecraft "Kanopus-V" № 3 should be located at 12.06 (06.06 Moscow time), after him - 12.12 - "Canopus-B" No.4 should be separated. At 13.33 the separation of S-NET spacecraft is planned. The branch of Lemurs and DStar One will be at 13.37 and 13.50, respectively.

Initially, this launch was scheduled for December 22, 2017, but after the November 28 crash with the Soyuz-2.1b missile, it was postponed to February next year.

Insured for billions

All spacecraft are insured, said RBC in Roskosmos. The source of RBC among insurers said that the launch itself insures "VTB insurance", and the responsibility for launching and the launch complex is the company "Soglasie".

In the "Consent" this information was confirmed by RBC, noting that the company "really acted as the direct insurer". The total amount of insurance exceeded 10 billion rubles, the press service said.

In particular, the amount of insurance for the infrastructure of the launch complex of the Vostochny cosmodrome amounted to 7.3 billion rubles. The insurance of "civil liability for causing damage to life, health, property of third parties and the environment during the launch and operation of the spacecraft" Kanopus-V "(No. 3, 4)" cost 3 billion rubles, "the company agreed.

VTB refused to comment on VTB.

The third "Eastern" launch

This launch is the third in the history of the cosmodrome. The head of Roskosmos Igor Komarov observed the event. Supervising space Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin to visit it could not "due to the busy schedules."

The first launch from the East took place on April 28, 2016. The launch of the Soyuz-2.1a missile was successful from the second time: it was planned for April 27, but was canceled by the automatic launch complex.

The second launch was on November 28, 2017, but ended in failure. The Soyuz-2.1b launch vehicle started from the Vostochny cosmodrome at 14:41 local time (08:41 MSK). The rocket was supposed to deliver into orbit a hydrometeorological spacecraft - the satellite "Meteor-M" No. 2-1, which was the main payload of the missile. The traveling load is the student satellite Baumanets-2 and 17 nanosatellites of foreign companies. The first, second and third stages of the "Union" worked properly, after which the first start of the engines of the "Fregat" upper stage took place. After that, together with the payload, he went to the zone of absence of radar, into the so-called radio night zone. Soon the information from "Meteor-M" ceased to flow.

The reason for the Roskosmos accident was the combination of several parameters that appeared at the Vostochny Space Center, namely the azimuth of the launching pad of the cosmodrome, the azimuth of the flight of the carrier rocket and the Fregat upper stage (namely, the solar synchronous orbit and precisely for this time of year). The azimuths were "impossible to identify with existing mathematical models".