“Soyuz-2.1b” launch vehicle
“All satellites have been separated,” the group representative said.
The rocket carrying the “Fregat” (Fregat) upper stage and satellite was launched from the East Cosmodrome at 3:57 Beijing time on October 23 (4:57 local time on October 23). A few minutes later, the upper stage carrying the satellite was launched into orbit. After that, in order to deliver the satellite to the designed orbit, the upper stage starts the engine five times. The Messenger satellite separated 1 hour and 38 minutes after launch, and the Skif-D satellite took 4 hours and 8 minutes to orbit.
“Skif-D” (Skif-D) will be a demonstration satellite for future broadband Internet access “Scythian” system technology and will be part of the “Sphere” satellite constellation. In the future, the “Marathon” demonstration satellite is planned to be launched, and the first satellite “Express-RV” (Express-RV) in a highly elliptical orbit will be launched at the end of 2025.