A Soyuz 2.1b rocket carrying two Ionosphere-M spacecraft blasts off from the Vostochny Cosmodrome in Amur region on Tuesday, November 5.

The total payload consists of Ionosphere-M heliogeophysical spacecraft No. 1 and No. 2, as well as 53 small satellites from Russia and other countries.

The Ionosphere-M are part of the 'Ionosonde' project from VNIIEM (All-Russian Scientific Research Institute Of Electromechanics), directed by Roscosmos for the benefit of both the Russian Academy of Sciences and Roshydromet (Russian Federal Service for Hydrometeorology and Environmental Monitoring).

'Ionosonde' looks at scientific and applied tasks, obtaining fundamental knowledge about the Earth's ionosphere to enable continuous monitoring of near-Earth space. It will include four Ionosphere-M satellites and one Zond-M satellite in total.