The first launch from the nearly $3 billion Vostochny Cosmodrome took off Thursday, carrying three satellites into orbit from the new spaceport nestled in Russia’s forested Far East.
A Soyuz-2.1a rocket lifted off at 0201 GMT Thursday (10:01 p.m. EDT Wednesday) from Vostochny. Russian President Vladimir Putin attended the launch.
The Russian space agency, Roscosmos, announced before the flight that the launch would be broadcast live on television and on the agency’s website. But those plans mysteriously changed on launch day, with Roscosmos’s official YouTube channel only streaming video of the liftoff on a time delay a few minutes later.
Roscosmos did release a set of spectacular images of the launch, which are presented below.
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