spacetoday.net: Soyuz launches Egyptian satellite despite upper stage problem

Soyuz launches Egyptian satellite despite upper stage problem

Posted: Sat, Feb 23, 2019, 5:26 PM ET (2226 GMT)
An Egyptian satellite made it to orbit Thursday despite an apparent problem with its Soyuz rocket. The Soyuz-2.1b rocket launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome at 11:47 am EST (1647 GMT), placing the EgyptSat-A remote sensing satellite into orbit. Russian media reported that there was a problem with the rocket's Fregat upper stage during the flight, but that the upper stage compensated for the problem with a longer second burn. Arianespace CEO Stephane Israel tweeted that the Soyuz launch of the first set of OneWeb satellites, which was scheduled for Feb. 26, will be delayed by one day because of the "non-nominal third-stage behavior" on Thursday's launch.