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Soyuz rocket delivers milsat from Plesetsk A Soyuz-2-1b rocket delivered a classified payload from a military launch site in Plesetsk in the early hours of Aug. 24, 2026.
Aug. 24, 2026, mission at a glance:
In mid-July 2026, Russian authorities announced air and sea navigation restrictions that matched a previous GLONASS missions. The window extended from July 16 to July 23, 2026, but was then cancelled, after possibly serving as a "cover" for the second 16-satellite batch of Rassvet satellites (INSIDER CONTENT) launched on July 19, 2026. However, similar warnings re-appeared in mid-August 2026, for a period between Aug. 19 and Aug. 30, 2026, this time overlapping with several parallel warnings issued as early as August 8 for drop zones used by an Angara-1.2 rocket, which was presumably scheduled for launch between August 13 and August 27. As before, restricted drop zones used by different launch vehicles were likely designed to complicate Ukrainian targeting of a particular launch site in Plesetsk. However, that measure was then negated somewhat with an announcement by local authorities in Komi Republic on Aug. 15, 2026, about the closures of Vashka and Zheleznodorozhny impact sites, which covered Udorsky, Knyazhpogostsky and Kortkerossky districts. Theses sites were previously used for launching GLONASS satellites on Soyuz rockets. Unlike previous announcements by Komi Republic, which would normally identify the launch window, the latest statement, put the launch in the "second half of August," without additional details. By Aug. 21, 2026, the authorities in the Tyumen Region of Russia warned about the planned impact of rocket debris in the Uvatsky District, also only identifying "the second half of August" as the timing of the launch. During the daylight hours of Aug. 23, 2026, eyewitnesses in the Arkhangelsk Region recorded a drone reportedly heading toward Plesetsk likely in a fresh attempt to attack the facility during final preparations for launch. On the morning of Aug. 24, 2026, the Russian Ministry of Defense reported that its space forces successfully launched aa Soyuz-2-1b rocket with a military spacecraft at 05:40 Moscow Time. The Russian military also confirmed that the payload had reached orbit as planned, that its ground assets established telemetry communications with the satellite and its onboard systems functioned as planned.
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