Aerospace forces completed operations to de-orbit the Fregat upper stage, which, as part of the Soyuz-2.1b launch vehicle, launched the Gonets-M satellite apparatus for use by the Russian Ministry of Defense. This was reported in the Russian Defense Department on Thursday, December 3.
Operations to de-orbit the upper stage were carried out by specialists from the G.S. Titov Main Testing Space Center.
The Soyuz-2.1b carrier rocket took off from the Plesetsk cosmodrome at 04:14 Moscow time from launching facility No. 3 of site No. 43.
As specified in the Ministry of Defense, all prelaunch operations and the launch of the Soyuz-2.1b took place as usual.
Later, the spacecraft block of the low-orbit commercial satellite communication system “Gonets-M” and the service platform of the nano-sized spacecraft “ERA-1” developed in the interests of the Russian Ministry of Defense were launched into the calculated orbit.
The Russian military department noted that the service platform is designed to test advanced micro-instruments and micro-systems of orientation and astronavigation.