Posted: Sun, Jul 14, 2019, 4:18 PM ET (2018 GMT)
A Proton rocket successfully launched a long-delayed X-ray astronomy spacecraft Saturday. The Proton lifted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome at 8:30 a.m. EDT (1230 GMT) and released the Spektr-RG spacecraft about two hours later. The spacecraft is bound for the Earth-Sun L-2 Lagrange point, 1.5 million kilometers from Earth, and will arrive there in three months. Spektr-RG is a joint Russian-German mission to perform X-ray astronomy, whose launch had suffered extensive delays.

Related Links:

•  Spaceflight Now article
•  Sky and Telescope article
•  NASASpaceFlight.com article
•  TASS article
•  BBC article