🇨🇺🇺🇸️ - Russia today launched two Earth observation satellites, KOEN, developed by MT-LAB, and Kino-Sputnik, developed by the Sputnik Group, into orbit aboard a Soyuz-2.1b rocket from the Vostochny Cosmodrome.
Roscosmos head Dmitry Bakanov said the state space agency partially financed the launch, with the satellites supposed to provide high-resolution images for government applications.
Capable of imaging the Earth's surface at resolutions of 50 and 80 centimeters per pixel, respectively, the satellites will support the monitoring of infrastructure, agricultural activities, construction sites and natural resource extraction.
The mission is a first in the history of Russian spaceflight, as privately developed spacecraft form the main payload of the launch.