The Soyuz 2-1b rocket, featuring advanced digital avionics and a more powerful third stage engine, lifted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 15:55 UTC.
The rocket’s core stages wrapped up their burns in less than 10 minutes, leaving a hydrazine-fueled Fregat upper stage to finish putting the payloads in a sun-synchronous orbit about 500 miles high.
The mission’s primary payload was the Meteor M1 weather satellite, a new Russian observatory designed to monitor the Earth’s climate from its perch in polar orbit.
Meteor M1’s six instruments will give Russian meteorologists a comprehensive look at the planet’s weather systems, helping forecasters create more accurate climate outlooks.
The Soyuz also orbited South Africa’s second satellite, a 179-pound trunk-sized spacecraft named SumbandilaSat.
A search-and-rescue satellite was also in the cache of secondary payloads carried by the Soyuz rocket.
Called Sterkh 2, the Russian contribution to the COSPAS-SARSAT international satellite system will join a similar spacecraft launched in July. The satellites detect distress beacon signals from land, sea and air, determine their locations, and relay the information to emergency officials.
A small 17-pound sphere covered in polished glass, named BLITS, was carried into space to act as a retroreflector to study satellite laser ranging techniques. Engineers will use lasers to track the soccer ball-sized satellite to help improve orbit determination methods.
The Soyuz also deployed a small payload called IRIS and a pair of small student-built satellites, each weighing less than 100 pounds. The Tatyana 2 and UGATUSAT spacecraft will conduct education and basic technology demonstration missions.
Spaceflight Now
Meteor M-1 Link
Universitetsky-2 (TATIANA) Link
Sterkh-2 Link
UGATUSAT Link
IRIS remains at the upper stage of Fregat rocket
SumbandilaSat (ZA-002) Link
BLITS (Ball Lens In The Space) Link
2009-049A: Meteor M-N1
2009-049B: Sumbandila
2009-049C: Tatiana 2 aka Universitetsky
2009-049D: UGATUSAT
2009-049E: Sterkh-2 2
2009-049F: BLITS
2009-049?: Fregat/IRIS