A Soyuz-2.1a rocket has delivered 11 satellites into orbit after being launched from Vostochny Cosmodrome in Russia.

The mission included two Earth observation Kanopus-V satellites comprising No3 and No4 from Russia and nine ‘piggybacked’ smallsats from Germany and the US.

The smallsats comprised four probes developed by German companies, including the S-Net satellites, and one D-Star One unit developed by German companies. The remaining probes featured the LEMUR remote-sensing satellite and were built by US companies, reported Tass.

According to Russian space agency Roscosmos, the launch has been conducted as part of various federal and commercial contracts signed with its subsidiary Glavkosmos.

“Around eight minutes and 48 seconds into the latest flight, the first three stages of the Soyuz-2.1b rocket took the ascent unit into a low-orbit.”

Around eight minutes and 48 seconds into the latest flight, the first three stages of the Soyuz-2.1b rocket took the ascent unit into a low-orbit.

The rocket’s Fregat upper-stage then performed scheduled mission manoeuvres to advance the satellites into their intended orbits.

Separation of the Kanopus-V satellites was expected to occur around an hour after lift-off.

The recent launch follows a failed mission of a Soyuz-2.1b rocket, which was used to carry the Meteor-M 2-1 Earth observation satellite from Vostochny in November last year. During the mission, Roscosmos failed to establish contact with the satellite shortly after launch.