MOSCOW – Russia has launched an imaging satellite and 72 micro-satellites into orbit to get a wide-angle view of the Earth and other support, international media reported.
This was announced by Russian space agency Roscosmos and research centre Glavcosmos that satellites were launched on Friday from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.
The Soyuz 2-1A rocket successfully lifted off at 0643 GMT with the satellite payload, Roscosmos said in a statement.
Later, the space agency announced that all the satellites had successfully separated by 1441 GMT and released into three different orbits.
“For the first time in the world, such a complex and large mission has been developed and implemented,” said Glavcosmos.
The Kanopus-V-IK satellite will provide wide-angle images of the Earth and will be helpful in detecting forest fires or updating the topography of maps.
