The Spektrum-Röntgen-Gamma (Spektr-RG) satellite took to the skies on Saturday, July 13th, at 17:31 local time (12:31 UT). The Proton rocket carrying the spacecraft launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome on the Kazakh Steppe in Russia, writes Sky and Telescope.
The launch will set Spektr-RG on its way for the next three months, until it reaches a stable solar orbit 1.5 million kilometers (1 million miles) from Earth, on the opposite side from the Sun. From there, two telescopes — one German and one Russian — will carry out investigations of the X-ray universe.
