MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 28th June, 2023) The Fregat upper stage has put into orbit 42 small satellites as a secondary payload launched from Russia's Vostochny cosmodrome earlier in the day, the Russian State Space Corporation Roscosmos said on Tuesday.
"A secondary payload, consisting of 39 Russian and three foreign satellites, was delivered to the target orbits and separated from the Fregat upper stage, which was launched today by the Soyuz-2.1b rocket from the Vostochny cosmodrome," the statement said.
According to the Russian government's order, foreign devices include the United Arab Enirates' PHI-Demo satellite, Malaysia's A-SEANSAT-PG1 satellite and Belarus' BSUSat-2 nanosatellite.
A simultaneous launch of 40 Russian satellites, including Meteor-M No. 2-3 weather satellite, which was the Primary payload, became a record in the history of Russia's cosmonautics, Roscosmos said.
On Tuesday, a Soyuz-2.1b carrier rocket carrying the Meteor-M weather satellite and 42 small aircraft, including three foreign satellites, was launched from the Vostocnhy cosmodrome. After 9 minutes 24 seconds, the Fregat separated from the third stage of the rocket. The upper stage turned on its propulsion system twice and delivered the Meteor-M into orbit about an hour after the launch of the rocket.
