RocketNews: 11 satellites launched to orbit by Soyuz rocket, SpaceX F9 booster survives water landing

Hey there,

that's a busy week! Two launches done, four more outstanding, including long-awaited Falcon Heavy Demo launch.

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Soyuz launch

Let's begin with todays Soyuz-2.1a launch. The russian rocket lifted a total of 11 satellites into orbit from Vostochny Cosmodrome.
This includes the 5 primary payloads: One Kanopus-V 3 and one Kanopus-V 4 observation satellite by Roscosmos, for improved disaster response, mapping and resource monitoring.
For more information (and for the other payloads) see
https://spaceflightnow.com/2018/01/31/soyuz-11-satellites/ .

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F9 GovSat-1 launch

SpaceX launched another rocket, this time for the luxembourgian government.
The GovSat-1 or SES-16, an military communication satellite, was launched on SLC-40 at KSC by flight-proven B1032.
As SpaceX planned to test a new, more aggressive (and fuel efficient) 3-engine landing burn, they decided to not take the risk of damaging the ASDS. Thus they expected a more or less soft landing on water, then the booster tipping over and explode, as it happened to all ever water-landed rockets/booster to this day.
But amazingly, it did NOT explode after touching the see, so now it floats there.

SpaceX can't even destroy a booster!

More information here or here.

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If you can't sleep tonight, make sure to watch the launch of the Long March 2D at 07:43 UTC!
Have a nice evening and
Stay assembled!

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upcoming launches

date	window (UTC)	vehicle	manufacturer	payload / mission	location
February 2	07:43 - 08:12	Long March 2D	CASC	CSES / Zhangheng-1	JSLC
February 3	05:00 - 05:20	SS-520-5	JAXA	Tricom-1R	USC
February 6	18:30 - 21:30	Falcon Heavy	SpaceX	Tesla Roadster	LC 39A, KSC