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Soyuz rockets continue piloted, military and dual-use launches Despite Russia's international isolation, the Soyuz rocket fleet maintained a brisk launch rate in 2024. Early in the year, the head of the Roskosmos commercial arm boasted that all the launch capabilities of Soyuz rockets had already been booked for 2024 and that sales of commercial launch opportunities in 2025 were underway. In May 2024, the head of RKTs Progress Dmitry Baranov said that nearly 20 launches of Soyuz rockets had been planned in the course of that year. In early October, after nine launches, Baranov expressed confidence that before the end of the year, the Soyuz rockets would mark 2000 missions since their introduction in 1957. It also meant that the rocket series were expected to log at least 15 launches in 2024.
A Soyuz-2-1a rocket lifts off on Sept. 11, 2024, carrying the Soyuz MS-26 crew vehicle to the ISS.
February 9: Soyuz-2-1v launches classified payload Military personnel in Plesetsk opened the 2024 Russian orbital launch campaigns with the liftoff of a Soyuz-2-1v rocket on February 9 carrying a payload for the Ministry of Defense. It was the 12th mission of the light-weight Soyuz variant since its introduction in 2013. February 15: Progress MS-26 re-supplies the ISS The first Russian mission to the ISS in 2024 carried 2.5 tons of supplies to the international outpost aboard the Progress MS-26 spacecraft. Liftoff of the cargo vehicle from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan took place as scheduled in the morning, local time, on February 15. It successfully reached the station in the early hours of February 17. February 29: Soyuz launches a weather satellite and 18 hitchhikers A Soyuz-2-1b rocket lifted off from Vostochny spaceport, carrying the Meteor-M2-4 weather spacecraft, along with a cluster of secondary payloads, including an Iranian micro-satellite for observations of the Earth's surface. It was the first mission originating from Vostochny in 2024. March 23: Soyuz MS-25 lifts off After a 48-hour delay, a Soyuz-2-1a rocket lifted off from Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan, delivering the Soyuz MS-25 spacecraft with a crew of three on its way to the International Space Station, ISS. March 31: Soyuz launches Resurs-P4 imaging satellite A Soyuz-2-1b rocket lifted off on a mission to revive Russia's prematurely defunct Resurs-P satellite constellation on March 31, 2024. The vehicle carried the fourth spacecraft in the series designed to provide the highest-resolution imagery of the Earth's surface among the country's civilian orbital assets. May 17: Soyuz-2 launches a classified satellite, secondary payloads Russian military personnel at Plesetsk Cosmodrome launched multiple satellites for the Ministry of Defense and several Russian developers on a Soyuz-2-1b rocket soon after midnight on May 17, 2024. May 30: Progress MS-27 Russian specialists at Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan launched their second cargo supply mission of 2024 to the International Space Station, ISS. August 15: Progress MS-28 re-supplies ISS The third Russian cargo supply mission to the International Space Station, ISS, in 2024, departed Cosmodrome Baikonur in Kazakhstan in the early hours of August 15. Two days later, it delivered nearly 2.5 tons of supplies to Expedition 71 aboard the ISS. September 11: Soyuz MS-26 lifts off A Soyuz-2-1a rocket lifted off from Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan, on Sept. 11, 2024, sending the Soyuz MS-26 spacecraft with a crew of three on its way to the International Space Station, ISS, for a nearly six-month stay. October 31: Soyuz launches a military mission A Soyuz-2-1a rocket launched a classified payload from the Plesetsk, north of Moscow, on Oct. 31, 2024, which is believed to be the sixth satellite in the Bars-M series of cartographic satellites. November 5: Soyuz-2-1b launches first Ionosfera mission A Soyuz-2-1b rocket lifted off from Vostochny spaceport on Nov. 5, 2024, carrying the first pair of four Ionosfera spacecraft. One of the few Russian space science projects expected to reach the launch pad this decade, the Ionosfera quartet aims to monitor "space weather" phenomena, such as the impact of solar wind on the near-Earth space, which will have a dual-use application. The same rocket also carried a cluster of 53 secondary payloads, including two satellites from Iran.
Summary of Soyuz rocket launches in 2024:
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