The Russian Aerospace Forces of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation launched a mission to deliver three Gonets-M communications satellites into a 1,400 km near-polar orbit.
The flight, launched on a Soyuz 2.1b rocket with a Fregat upper stage, lifted off at 01:14:36 UTC on Thursday, 3 December (20:14:36 EST on Wednesday, 2 December) from Site No. 43/3 at the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in northeastern Russia.