(dpa/TBI Africa.com) A Russian space launch on Monday was successful despite the rocket being hit by lightning shortly after blast-off, the Roscosmos space agency said.
“Lightning is no obstacle for you,’’ Roscosmos chief Dmitry Rogozin said on Twitter, congratulating his team for the “successful launch.’’
He posted a video of a bolt of lightning appearing to strike the vessel.
The launch delivered a satellite for Russia’s Glonass navigation system into orbit, the space agency said in a statement.
The system is a rival of the U.S. Global Positioning System (GPS).
The head of Russia’s Plesetsk Cosmodrome, which conducted the launch, confirmed that the carrier rocket had been struck by lightning on ascent, according to comments carried by state news agency TASS.
“The launch was carried out in the normal mode,’’ Russian Major General Nikolai Nestechuk was quoted as saying. “The weather is not an obstacle. We are all-weather troops.’’
