Why Putin Wouldn't Let You Watch Russia's Latest Space Launch

After a 24-hour delay because of a technical problem, a Russian Soyuz rocket made a successful blastoff from the nation's brand-new Vostochny Cosmodrome. The historic launch marked the beginning of a decade-long process to switch Russian space activities to its own territory from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. But it also marked the return to Soviet-era launch secrecy.

Baikonur hosted most pioneering feats in the Soviet space program, from the launch of the first Sputnik in 1957 to the first human in space in 1961 to the first soft landing of a robotic probe on the Moon in 1966. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, thought, Russia and Kazakhstan often clashed on the terms of the Russian lease of the sprawling launch site. For years, the Russian government promised to build a new spaceport inside its own borders, but just started active construction at a disused missile site near the town of Svobodny in the Amur Region in 2011. (Read our full story on the construction here.)

It reminded veteran observers of the Soviet era, when many historic launches would be "televised" only after they successfully began their journey into space.

Despite numerous management and labor problems, the new launch site dubbed Vostochny (eastern) was completed just few months behind the original deadline. In the past few months, while construction teams were still putting finishing touches on various facilities of the center, a team of engineers was already laboring on the first rocket and spacecraft for this mission.

Roskosmos

This month the Soyuz-2-1a rocket finally arrived to the launch pad, to great fanfare from the official Russian media. Yet even though there was huge interest in the first mission to launch from Vostochny among the Russian public and countless space fans abroad, neither was able to see the spectacular liftoff live.

On the eve of the original launch attempt, the Russian President Vladimir Putin appeared in a region with a huge entourage of security. According to witnesses in the journalistic pool in Vostochny, Kremlin officials suddenly imposed a 10-minute embargo on all live broadcasts of the liftoff. (In the world of astronautics, it was long enough for the spacecraft to rocket away and reach an initial parking orbit around the Earth.) Around the same time, a previously published live feed page on Roskosmos web site also disappeared.

The Soyuz mission's initial ascent

Anatoly Zak

Foreign broadcasters were denied accreditation to Vostochny in the first place. Only one local TV channel attempted to conduct live broadcast during the historic liftoff, but its crew was confined to a train station around 20 kilometers from the launch pad and its Internet feed was reaching viewers several minutes late.

All these extraordinary measures were designed to save Russian officials from embarrassment in case of the failure or a delay of the high-profile launch. In fact, trouble came during the first launch attempt on Wednesday morning, when the pre-launch countdown was aborted just a minute and a half before the ignition. The second launch attempt 24 hours later seemingly went off without a hitch. After the rocket had successfully entered an initial parking orbit, Roskosmos posted "live" video of the historic event on its web site.

Roskosmos

The actual mission is going well. The veteran Soyuz rocket successfully released its triple cargo into a proper orbit. The passengers included the Mikhailo Lomonosov satellite, named after the prolific 18-century Russian scientist and intended for probing cosmic rays and their interaction with the Earth's atmosphere. Also onboard were a state-of-the-art Earth observation satellite and a tiny education satellite.

Yet this weird launch situation reminded veteran observers of the Soviet era, when many historic launches would be "televised" only after they successfully began their journey into space. The episode also demonstrated the wide-ranging ability of the Kremlin essentially silence the entire broadcast media in the country at a moment's notice. Despite a firestorm of criticism and ridicule in the Russian-language social media, no Russian broadcaster dared to discuss the situation, let alone to complain.

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