Russia's Vostochny Spaceport Launches First Satellites

Russia's new Vostochny cosmodrome hosted its first rocket launch on Thursday, the Roscosmos space agency said, after a last-minute delay a day earlier led to President Vladimir Putin criticising the programme's officials.

The Soyuz 2.1a rocket carrying three satellites took off at 11.01 am local time (0201 GMT), the national space agency said in a statement, after the countdown was automatically halted for technical reasons 24 hours previously.

"The rocket launch was carried out successfully. All three satellites are now in orbit," Roscosmos said in a statement.

Russian television showed the Soyuz 2.1a taking off into a blue sky in light winds, though foreign media organisations including AFP were not allowed to enter the new space centre.

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