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Soyuz-2-1v launches first mission of 2025 Military personnel in Plesetsk opened the 2025 Russian orbital launch campaigns with the liftoff of a Soyuz-2-1v rocket on February 5 carrying multiple payloads for the Ministry of Defense. It is expected to be the 13th and last mission of the light-weight Soyuz variant.
Soyuz-2-1v rocket mission on Feb. 5, 2025, at a glance:
Based on the notifications to the air and sea traffic issued by the Russian authorities ahead of the launch, it appeared that a three-stage version of the Soyuz-2-1v rocket with a Volga upper stage was scheduled to ascend to an orbit with an inclination 82.4 degrees toward the Equator. Soyuz-2-1v was launched to an orbit with the same inclination during its first mission in 2013. The rocket's Volga space tug, serving as the third stage, was expected to be deorbited over a Southern section of the Pacific Ocean around 12 hours after liftoff. According to the official statement from the Russian military disseminated by the TASS news agency, a Soyuz-2-1v rocket lifted off on Feb. 5, 2025, from Plesetsk carrying satellites for the Ministry of Defense. The announcement did not contain the time of launch or even the cover-up Kosmos names for the delivered payloads. Based on the witness account in Northern Russia, it appeared that the launch took place around 07:00 Moscow Time, in the middle of a two-hour window announced in navigation warnings. Several hours after the launch, the US Space Force cataloged five objects associated with the mission, one of which appeared to be a second stage left in the initial elliptical orbit and four others in the final near-circular orbit, which could be the payloads and the Volga space tug:
The subsequent tracking updates from the US Space Force indicated that Object D had reentered, most likely as a result of the pre-programmed deorbiting maneuver, essentially confirming that it was the Volga upper stage, which had released three satellites. Without confirmation from the Russian authorities, the US Space Force presumed that Objects A, B and C in its catalog had official designations Kosmos-2581, -2582 and 2583, respectively. Between Feb. 14 and Feb. 15, 2025, Object B (presumed Kosmos-2582) climbed from its original 576 by 597-kilometer orbit to the 580 by 599-kilometer orbit. Object A (Kosmos-2581) then did a similar orbit-raising maneuver around Feb. 19, 2025. As a result, both maneuvered satellites ended up in higher orbits than Object C (Kosmos-2583), which appeared to be inactive at the time.
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