Russia’s multi-billion-dollar spaceport in the Far East has successfully launched 11 satellites into orbit, including 4 commercial U.S. satellites, in the third-ever launch from the Vostochny Cosmodrome.
The last launch was delayed in November after a satellite crashed into the sea due to wrongly programmed coordinates, Russian officials said at the time. The $5-billion cosmodrome launched its first satellites into space in April 2016.
The Roscosmos Federal space agency said that two Russian earth observation satellites had entered into orbit as of early Thursday. It confirmed later that four U.S. and five German commercial nanosatellites were also successfully deployed.
“I will begin by congratulating all of you with today’s successful launch,” Igor Komarov, the head of Roscosmos, was cited as saying by the RBC business portal.
“Before the end of the year, we are planning two more launches in the second half of the year,” he added.
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