Russian launched its Arktika-M satellite on Sunday on a mission to monitor the environment and climate in the Arctic amid a push to expand the country’s activities in the region.
The Arctic has warmed more than twice as fast as the global average over the last thirty years and Moscow seeks to develop the energy-rich region, investing in the Northern Sea Route for shipping across its long northern flank ice melts.
Arktika-M successfully reached its intended orbit after being launched from Kazakhstan’s Baikonur cosmodrome by a Soyuz rocket, Dmitry Rogozin , head of Russia’s Roscosmos space agency, said in a tweet.
Russia is planning to send up a second satellite in 2023 and, combined, the two will offer round-the-clock, all-weather monitoring of the Arctic Ocean and the surface of the Earth, Roscosmos said.
