The New Vostochny Cosmodrome Brings Launches Back To Russian Soil

Russia's new Vostochny Cosmodrome launched its first rocket on Wednesday, April 27th, carrying three new satellites into orbit. After an initial 24-hour launch delay due to a computer-initiated abort, a Soyuz-2.1a lifted off from its pad at 10:01 am EDT. Every successful space launch is important in its own way, but this one even more so because of the importance of this new cosmodrome to Russia. The breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991 threw that country into chaos. The formal dissolution of the...