VOSTOCHNY: Russia's new Vostochny cosmodrome hosted its first rocket launch Thursday, the Roscosmos space agency said, after a last-minute delay a day earlier led to President Vladimir Putin criticising the programme's officials.
The launch is good news for Russia's beleaguered space sector, with the new cosmodrome touted to mark a rebirth of an industry plagued by a string of embarrassments in recent years.
The Soyuz 2.1a rocket carrying three satellites took off at 11:01 am local time (0201 GMT), the national space agency said in a statement, after the countdown was automatically halted for technical reasons 24 hours previously.
"The rocket launch was carried out successfully. All three satellites are now in orbit," Roscosmos said in a statement.
Russian television showed the Soyuz 2.1a taking off into a blue sky in light winds, though foreign media organisations including AFP were not allowed to enter the new space centre.
Putin was present for the event, having travelled to Russia's far east to witness the first attempt at take-off.
"I want to congratulate you. We can be proud. Yesterday the technical side was put to the test and the launch had to be stopped, but it happens. It's a normal thing," Putin told industry officials shortly after the launch.
"The most important thing is that the launching system works... There's still a lot of work to do, but it's a serious and important contribution to the development of the Russian space industry," he added.
The postponement of Vostochny's inaugural launch had earlier led the president to scold space chiefs -- despite delays worldwide being relatively frequent, with a European launch from French Guiana having to be put off three times last week before finally taking place on Monday.
Comments
Comments are closed.