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Soyuz launches newest navsat The Russian military personnel at Plesetsk performed the launch of a Soyuz-2 rocket carrying the second GLONASS-K2 spacecraft variant on March 3, 2025, in the gradual process of replenishment and renovation of its global positioning satellite constellation.
The GLONASS-K2 No. 14L mission at a glance:
According to the Russian Ministry of Defense, the launch of the Soyuz-2-1b rocket with a military payload took place at 01:22 Moscow Time on March 3, 2025, (5:22 p.m. EDT on March 2). Under the typical launch scenario of GLONASS missions, after several seconds of vertical ascent, the launch vehicle usually heads southeast to reach an orbit with an inclination 64.77 degrees toward the Equator. The four boosters of the first stage separate around two minutes into the flight and fall in the eastern section of the Arkhangelsk Region. Around a minute later, as the vehicle passes the dense atmosphere, the payload fairing protecting the satellite splits into two halves and its fragments impact the ground in the Komi Republic. In the meantime, the second (core) stage of the rocket continues firing until around 4.7 minutes in flight and separates moments after the ignition of the RD-0124 engine on the third stage. Shortly thereafter, the cylindrical aft section of the third stage splits into three segments and separates as well. The core stage and the fragments of the aft section fall in the Omsk Region. The third stage of the rocket completes the initial powered ascent less than nine minutes into the flight and separates from the Fregat upper stage. The Fregat fires its propulsion system for the first time around 1.5 minute after the separation of the third stage, while the vehicle is on a quasi-orbit with a perigee (lowest point) in the upper atmosphere, which ensures a guaranteed reentry of the third stage before making a single orbit. In the meantime, the Fregat's first maneuver lasting just under 20 seconds inserts the space tug and its cargo into an initial near-circular parking orbit just above 200 kilometers in altitude. After around 25 minutes in passive flight, the Fregat fires its engine for the second time, pushing itself and its cargo onto a transfer elliptical (egg-shaped) orbit with an apogee (highest point) around 19,000 kilometers above the Earth, where GLONASS satellites reside. The Fregat/GLONASS stack coasts along the transfer ellipse for around two hours and 40 minutes. Upon reaching the apogee, the Fregat performs its third engine firing of the mission, lasting around four minutes. The maneuver makes the orbit nearly circular and puts the GLONASS spacecraft in position for separation from the Fregat around half a minute later. On March 3, 2025, ISS Reshetnev, which builts GLONASS series, announced that the satellite had been delivered into its target orbit with the help of the Soyuz-2-1b rocket and the Fregat upper stage, that it had been taken under control by ground assets of the Russian Air and Space Forces and that all the systems aboard the satellite had functioned well.
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