After a series of unfortunate events, Russia has finally blasted off the first-ever rocket from its new space facility on April 28.
The unmanned rocket called Soyuz 2.1a finally saw liftoff from the Vostochny Cosmodrome in Amur Oblast in Russian Far East, near the border of China, at 5:01 a.m. (2:01 a.m. GMT). It carried three satellites, which took the path toward their respective orbits after separating on third stage minutes after launch.
The historical event was personally witnessed by President Vladimir Putin, who saw it at least a mile away from the launch pad. He then congratulated the staff on television after the launch.
"This is just the first stage of enormous work, and everything you were supposed to do you did brilliantly," he said.
While there's no immediate flight after this, the country may launch a few more of these Soyuz rockets to build a "constellation" of Internet satellites between 2018 and 2019.
The space facility, which spans 3,400 miles (5,500 kilometers), features the needed equipment and technology to handle lift-offs of small cargo including satellites. However, it may take a while before manned launches may be performed. It's estimated that by 2020, the new cosmodrome will take care of 45 percent of space operations while Baikonur will have 11 percent.
Regardless, the new cosmodrome will also take off the economic burden from Russia that is currently leasing the space in Kazakhstan for a whopping $115 million until 2050.
But despite this success, the road to construction and launch was paved with trouble. The scheduled lift-off on April 27 was canceled at the eleventh hour, which is reported to have upset the president. Nevertheless, he went on to defend it.
"The equipment overreached itself a little bit yesterday. In principle, we could have held the launch yesterday, but the equipment overdid its job and stopped the launch. This is a normal thing," explained Putin.
Further, in April 2015, some facility workers staged a hunger strike as they demanded their wages that went unpaid for several months. The construction was also hounded by charges of corruption, labor law violations, and deep budget cuts on its space program.
