Posted: Sun, Jul 16, 2017, 9:02 AM ET (1302 GMT)
A Soyuz rocket launched a remote sensing satellite and 72 secondary payloads July 14, a record for that launch vehicle. The Soyuz lifted off at 2:36 am EDT (0636 GMT) from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Its primary payload, the Kanopus-V-IK remote sensing satellite, released from the upper stage about an hour after liftoff, and 72 smallsat secondary payloads separated over the next seven hours. Those payloads included 48 cubesats for Planet to complete its initial Earth imaging constellation, as well as spacecraft for Astro Digital, GeoOptics, and Spire. It also carried satellites for the Russian government and universities as well as several other countries. The 73 total satellites on the rocket was a record for the Soyuz, and second only to an Indian PSLV that launched more than 100 satellites in February.
