Roscosmos CEO Dmitry Rogozin on December 5 showed in his Telegram channel "two-way" launch vehicle "Soyuz-ST-B".
Rogozin published a picture of the Soyuz-ST-B launch vehicle with Galileo satellites installed on the launch pad of the Kourou cosmodrome. Due to the mirror reflection in the wet plates, the image of the rocket turned out to be symmetrical.
"Samara rocket scientists have created a two-way rocket - specifically for launching from the other side of the Earth," the CEO of Roscosmos signed the photo.
Soyuz-ST-B with two Galileo navigation satellites on board successfully launched from the Kourou cosmodrome in French Guiana earlier on Sunday at 03:19 Moscow Time. For 2021, this launch was the 21st launch of Russian space rockets and the first from the Guiana Space Center.
The launch of Soyuz-ST-B scheduled for December 4 from the Kourou cosmodrome was postponed for a day due to adverse weather conditions. The decision to reschedule was made by the French side seven minutes before the launch.
On December 3, the launch of the launch vehicle was also postponed for a day. Then the reason was the unavailability of the French ship's station for receiving telemetry information.
The European Global navigation satellite system Galileo is named after the Italian astronomer and physicist Galileo Galilei. At the moment, 28 satellites, including experimental and working vehicles, have been put into low-Earth orbit.