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Soyuz launches a classified payload Russian military personnel at Plesetsk Cosmodrome launched a Soyuz-2-1b/Fregat rocket with a satellite for the Ministry of Defense.
Soyuz-2 rocket mission on May 23, 2025, at a glance:
Preparations for launch In mid-May 2025, the authorities of Russia's Yamalsk District issued warnings for the planned rocket boosters impacts between Yar Sale and Ports Yakha settlements, as well as in Panaevsk and Khadyta-Yakha sites during a time period from May 23 to May 28, 2025. These locations were previously used for discarding the second stage and the three panels of the aft skirt from the third stage of the Soyuz-2 rockets during missions known to be delivering Lotos satellites for the Liana constellation and the first Neitron satellite into orbits with an inclination around 67 degrees toward the Equator. Around the same time, Russian authorities issued a navigation warning for the same launch window for an impact site in the Pacific Ocean, east of New Zealand, which would normally be required for the deorbiting of the Fregat upper stage after the release of its payload during the third orbit of the mission. This excluded the possibility of a Lotos family payload, because they do not require an upper stage to reach their target orbit. As a result, another Neitron-class satellite or an entirely new payload remained on the list of potential candidates for the launch, along with the first Araks-R radar-imaging satellite, whose development at NPO Lavochkin for the Russian Ministry of Defense fell years behind schedule but was believed to be close to completion in 2025. As noted by space historian Bart Hendrickx, the officially announced impact site for the third stage of the Soyuz-2 rocket was located considerably further south in the Pacific Ocean, east of New Zealand, than in the previous Neitron launch, indicating a higher target orbit for the upcoming mission. Soyuz-2-1b lifts off Around noon Moscow Time, on May 23, 2025, the Russian Ministry of Defense announced that Space Forces conducted launch of a Soyuz-2-1b rocket from Plesetsk with a military payload. Some three hours later, the Russian military confirmed the successful delivery of the satellite into its target orbit and the specified the launch time of the mission as 11:36 Moscow Time. The US Space Force catalogued the first object associated with the mission in a 464 by 481-kilometer orbit with an inclination 73.0 degrees toward the Equator. Besides an unexpected inclination, such an orbit appeared unusually low for a payload delivered with a Fregat upper stage. In the meantime, Bart Hendrickx noticed that, the orbital plane of the newly launched Russian satellite matched that of USA-338, believed to be a reconnaissance satellite. If not coincidental, it could be another case of a Russian orbital "inspector" attempting to "intercept" an American target. According to satellite observer Dr. Marco Langbroek, the two satellites could come as close as 100 kilometers.
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