Soyuz 2.1b/Fregat | Glonass-K1 No. 19
Russian Space Forces launched Soyuz 2.1b Fregat carrying Glonass-K1 No. 19 from 43/3 (43L), Plesetsk Cosmodrome, Russian Federation at 2026-08-24 02:40:00Z. The launch flew and reached its intended orbit.
COUNTDOWN
FLIGHT PLAN
The window was instantaneous: the vehicle flew at T-0 or stood down to the next opportunity. The launch vehicle successfully inserted its payload(s) into the target orbit(s).
FIELD KIT / OPTICS
Where to start if the plan is a real telescope in a real back garden.
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Celestron FirstScope 76 mm Tabletop Telescope
76 mm of aperture on a tabletop mount with nothing to align: put it on a step, point it, look. The entry point of the whole category — it comes with no finder, which is the trade — and enough scope to show lunar craters and Jupiter's four bright moons.
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Beginner Dobsonians
The category most experienced observers point a beginner at: aperture on a simple rocker mount, with no motors to fail. A starting point for browsing rather than a specific pick — compare 130 mm and 150 mm before buying.
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Beginner refractors
Lighter and quicker to set up than a Dobsonian, weaker on faint deep-sky objects. Worth browsing if the scope has to live in a cupboard and come out on a whim.
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MISSION BRIEF
Note: Payload identity not confirmed. Glonass-K are the third generation of satellite design for GLONASS satellite navigation system. GLONASS is a Russian space-based navigation system comparable to the similar GPS and Galileo systems. This generation improves on accuracy, power consumption and design life. Each satellite is unpressurized and weighs 935 kg, and has an operational lifetime of 10 years.
SOURCE: LAUNCH LIBRARY 2 // THE SPACE DEVS
LAUNCH CORRIDOR
- Due east
- The lowest orbit inclination a direct launch from here can reach — 62.9°, which is this pad’s own latitude. It also collects the most free speed from Earth’s rotation.
- Due south
- The polar and sun-synchronous corridor: 90° inclination, passing over both poles. It gets no help from Earth’s spin, which is why it costs more payload.
Drag the globe to turn it. The shading is the real terminator, and it moves.
A globe of the Earth centred on 43/3 (43L) at latitude 62.93 degrees north, longitude 40.45 degrees east. Two curved lines leave the pad. The solid gold line runs due east and marks the lowest orbital inclination a direct launch from this site can reach, 62.9 degrees, equal to the pad’s latitude of 62.9 degrees. The dashed cyan line runs due south and marks the polar corridor at 90 degrees inclination. The darkened part of the globe is the night side. Surface wind is blowing from 288°, at 7 km/h, shown as the cyan arrow at the pad.
LAUNCH SITE
43/3 (43L)
Plesetsk Cosmodrome, Russian Federation, Russia
OBSERVED 2026-08-28 00:45:00Z // OPEN-METEO (CC BY 4.0) // GENERAL CONDITIONS, NOT LAUNCH CRITERIA
Minimum direct inclination 63°. From 63° north of the equator, a direct ascent cannot enter an orbit inclined less than 63°, because an orbit of inclination i never passes over latitudes beyond ±i. Reaching an equatorial plane — what a geostationary transfer ultimately needs — therefore costs a plane change of 63° somewhere in the flight, while inclinations of 63° and above are available straight off the pad. The ground here is carried eastward at about 212 m/s (465 m/s at the equator, falling with the cosine of latitude), and a due-east launch keeps that head start.
DATUM WGS-84 // EQUIRECTANGULAR PROJECTION // ORBIT FIGURES DERIVED FROM THE PUBLISHED LATITUDE
PAD CONDITIONS
SURFACE WIND @ 10 M
7km/h
Blowing from the west-north-west, bearing 288 degrees
GUSTING
17km/h
Partly cloudy
SOURCE: OPEN-METEO CC BY 4.0
The observed block is general weather for the coordinates of 43/3 (43L), not launch-commit criteria. Those are written per mission by the operator and the range, cover conditions this forecast does not carry at all (electric fields, cloud layers aloft, winds through the vehicle’s own load limits), and are published only by the operator. Wind is a common reason countdowns stop for weather — that is general context, not a rule about this flight, and no number in this block is a threshold. Nothing here is a go or no-go call, and no operator figure was published for this attempt.
COMMON QUESTIONS
What time did Soyuz 2.1b Fregat · Glonass-K1 No. 19 launch?
Soyuz 2.1b/Fregat | Glonass-K1 No. 19 lifted off at 2026-08-24 02:40:00Z, flown by Russian Space Forces. The window was instantaneous: the vehicle flew at T-0 or stood down to the next opportunity. The launch flew and reached its intended orbit.
Where can I watch Soyuz 2.1b Fregat · Glonass-K1 No. 19 again?
No official webcast was published for Soyuz 2.1b/Fregat | Glonass-K1 No. 19. Third-party recordings of the flight may exist, but Russian Space Forces did not post a feed of its own.
What was Soyuz 2.1b Fregat · Glonass-K1 No. 19 carrying?
Note: Payload identity not confirmed. Glonass-K are the third generation of satellite design for GLONASS satellite navigation system. GLONASS is a Russian space-based navigation system comparable to the similar GPS and Galileo systems. This generation improves on accuracy, power consumption and design life. Each satellite is unpressurized and weighs 935 kg, and has an operational lifetime of 10 years.
Where did Soyuz 2.1b Fregat · Glonass-K1 No. 19 launch from?
Soyuz 2.1b/Fregat | Glonass-K1 No. 19 lifted off from 43/3 (43L), Plesetsk Cosmodrome, Russian Federation, Russia. The pad sits at 62.9273, 40.4500.