Posted: Sun, Jul 27, 2025, 12:53 PM ET (1653 GMT)
A Soyuz rocket launched a space science mission and other smallsats early Friday. The Soyuz-2.1b rocket lifted off from the Vostochny Cosmodrome in Russia’s Far East region at 1:54am EDT (0554 GMT). Its primary payload was a pair of Ionosfera-M satellites, placed in an 800-kilometer sun-synchronous orbit to make space weather measurements. The launch also carried 18 cubesat secondary payloads, 17 from Russian institutions and one from Iran.

Related Links:

•  NASASpaceflight.com article
•  TASS article
•  AP article