WATCH Lightning Hit Soyuz Rocket During Launch

Despite the lightning strike, the launch was successful and the GLONASS satellite continued its launch into orbit.

On Monday morning, the Soyuz-2.1b launch vehicle with the Glonass-M navigation satellite, which was launched from the Plesetsk cosmodrome, was hit by lightning.

According to experts, the launch of the satellite into the calculated orbit will last several hours. At the moment of launch at the cosmodrome it was raining, and in the video of the launch it is seen that there was a discharge of lightning which hit the rocket approximately ten seconds after it lifted off.

Поздравляем командование Космических войск, боевой расчёт космодрома Плесецк, коллективы РКЦ "Прогресс" (Самара), НПО имени С.А.Лавочкина (Химки) и ИСС имени академика М.Ф.Решетнёва (Железногорск) с успешным запуском КА ГЛОНАСС!
Молния вам не помеха pic.twitter.com/1cmlZ4hD1g

— Дмитрий Рогозин (@Rogozin) May 27, 2019