Moscow, Russia — A bolt of lightning struck a Russian Soyuz rocket during a satellite launch Monday.
The strike happened about 30 seconds after blast-off but did not slow the booster or seem to harm it in any way.
I happened during the launch of a Glonass-M navigation satellite from Russia's Plesetsk Cosmodrome about 500 miles (800 kilometers) north of Moscow at 9:23 a.m. Moscow time (0623 GMT).
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Translation:
“Congratulations to the command of space troops, the combat calculation of the cosmodrome Plesetsk, the collectives of the "Progress" (Samara), the NGO named after S. A. Lavachkina (Khimki) and the ISS named after Academician M. F. Reshetnev (Zheleznogorsk) with the successful launch of the SPACECRAFT GLONASS! Lightning you don't hindrance.”
In a statement, officials with Russia's space agency Roscosmos announced that the rocket successfully reached orbit.
Roscosmos Director General Dmitry Rogozin said in a tweet that not even lightning is a problem for the launch team.
The director went on to congratulate the Glonass-M launch team and Russian military Space Forces.