In the area of the fall of the fragments of the Soyuz-2.1b carrier rocket in the Kobyaysk ulus of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia), specialists from the Center for Operation of Ground Space Infrastructure Facilities (TsENKI, part of the State Corporation Roscosmos), together with the Yakutia Rescue Service, are working on evacuation a fragment of the second stage of the Soyuz-2.1b launch vehicle, which was discovered after a successful launch on December 18, 2020.
At present, snow samples have been taken at the site of the fragment detection at the monitoring points, and gamma radiation measurements have also been carried out. According to the results of express tests, no abnormal deviations were recorded. Representatives of the Republican Information and Analytical Center for Environmental Monitoring and the Kobyai Inspection of State Environmental Supervision of the Ministry of Ecology of Yakutia are also working at the site of the discovery of the fragments.
Measures to evacuate a fragment of the launch vehicle will be carried out from 11 to 19 March 2021. Upon completion of the work, the discovered fragment will be removed and delivered to the Vostochny cosmodrome.
The launch of the Soyuz-2.1b carrier rocket with the Fregat upper stage and 36 OneWeb spacecraft from the Vostochny cosmodrome took place on December 18, 2020. All spacecraft have been successfully launched into target orbits. The Aldan and Kobyaysk regions of Yakutia were chosen as the fall areas for the separating parts of the launch vehicles.