A Soyuz rocket blasted off from the Vostochny cosmodrome in Russia's Far East on Friday, putting into orbit 36 UK telecommunications and internet satellites, the Roscosmos space agency said.

The launch was the first and only one to take place from the cosmodrome this year, Roscosmos told AFP.

The rocket took off at 1226 GMT, the space agency said, carrying satellites made by the British-based company OneWeb.

Nearly five hours later space agency chief Dmitry Rogozin said that all the satellites had reached their intended orbit.

"The mission has been successfully completed. Congratulations!" he said on Twitter.

Originally planned for April, the launch was delayed after OneWeb collapsed and was forced to declare bankruptcy.

Last month, the UK government and Indian telecommunications giant Bharti took control of the company, investing $500 million a piece.

The London-headquartered company is working to complete the construction of a constellation of low earth orbit satellites providing enhanced broadband and other services to countries around the world.

OneWeb's first six satellites were launched by a Russian-made Soyuz rocket from the space centre in Kourou in French Guiana in February 2019.

The company launched 34 more in February this year from the Baikonur launch site in Kazakhstan, then another 34 in March.

Lengthened to the size of a tennis court, the five-layer sunshield of NASA's fully assembled James Webb Space Telescope successfully completed a final series of large-scale deployment and tensioning tests. This milestone puts the observatory one step closer to its launch in 2021.

"This is one of Webb's biggest accomplishments in 2020," said Alphonso Stewart, Webb deployment systems lead for NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.

On December 10, 2020 (Hawai'i Standard Time), the Subaru Telescope imaged the small asteroid 1998 KY26, the target of Hayabusa2's extended mission. The positional data for 1998 KY26 collected during the observations will be used to more accurately determine the orbital elements of this object.

Operated by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), the asteroid explorer Hayabusa2 delivered a reentry capsule to Earth containing samples from the asteroid (162173) Ryugu on December 6 (Japan Standard Time).

A Soyuz rocket blasted off from the Vostochny cosmodrome in Russia's Far East on Friday carrying 36 UK telecommunications and internet satellites, the Roscosmos space agency said.

The launch was the first and only one to take place from the cosmodrome this year, Roscosmos told AFP.

The rocket took off at 1226 GMT, Roscosmos said, carrying satellites made by the British-based company OneWeb.

Originally planned for April, the launch was delayed after OneWeb collapsed and was forced to declare bankruptcy.

Last month, the UK government and Indian telecommunications giant Bharti took control of the company, investing $500 million a piece.

The London-headquartered company is working to complete the construction of a constellation of low earth orbit satellites providing enhanced broadband and other services to countries around the world.

OneWeb's first six satellites were launched by a Russian-made Soyuz rocket from the space centre in Kourou in French Guiana in February 2019.

The company launched 34 more in February this year from the Baikanour launch site in Kazakhstan, then another 34 in March.

OneWeb plans for its global commercial internet service to be operational by 2022, supported by some 650 satellites.

"Today's launch will be the first fully commercial spacecraft launch from the Vostochny cosmodrome," Roscosmos said.

NASA and ESA (European Space Agency) are moving to the next phase in a campaign to deepen understanding of whether life ever existed on Mars and, in turn, better understand the origins of life on Earth.

NASA has approved the Mars Sample Return (MSR) multi-mission effort to advance to Phase A, preparing to bring the first pristine samples from Mars back to Earth. During this phase, the program will mature critical technologies and make critical design decisions, as well as assess industry partnerships.

The first endeavor of this campaign is in progress. NASA's Mars 2020 Perseverance rover launched in July and is set to land on the Red Planet Feb. 18, 2021. The car-size rover will search for signs of ancient microbial life. Using a coring drill at the end of its robotic arm, Perseverance has the capability to gather samples of Martian rock and regolith (broken rock and dust), and hermetically seal them in collection tubes.