MOSCOW:  the Roscosmos space agency informed that a Soyuz rocket blasted off from the Vostochny cosmodrome in Russia's Far East on Friday carrying 36 UK telecommunications and internet satellites. The rocket took off at 1226 GMT carrying satellites made by the British-based company OneWeb.

Nearly five hours later space agency chief Dmitry Rogozin said that all the satellites had reached their intended orbit. He took to Twitter and wrote, "The mission has been successfully completed. Congratulations!" Roscosmos told AFP, The launch was the first and only one to take place from the cosmodrome this year. This launch was originally planned for April but was delayed after OneWeb collapsed and was forced to declare bankruptcy.

The Vostochny launch site is one of the country's most important space projects, designed to reduce reliance on the Baikonur space centre Russia currently rents from Kazakhstan. Its construction has for years been tainted by multiple controversies.

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