The Meteor-M No. 2-4 weather satellite launched from the Vostochny spaceport has been put into orbit by the Fregat booster, Russia’s State Space Corporation Roscosmos said in a statement.

"The new satellite has reached the designated orbit and separated from the booster. Fregat is now delivering 18 Russian and foreign-made small satellites into their designated orbits," the statement reads.

The Soyuz-2.1b launch vehicle carrying the satellites blasted off from the Vostochny spaceport at 8:43 a.m. Moscow time (5:43 a.m. GMT).

The Meteor-M satellite is designed to explore the Earth's natural resources, monitor the helio-geophysical situation in near-Earth space and receive information from automatic data collection measurement platforms. The spacecraft is also equipped with the tools of the COSPAS-SARSAT search and rescue system.

Quelle: TASS