On December 3, 2017, at 04:11 the “Long March–2D” (“Changzheng-2D”) rocket-carrier was launched from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in Jiuquan, Gansu Province, the northwest of China. The rocket orbited the “LKW-1” (land exploration satellite) satellite. Western analysts believe the satellite is likely a high-resolution imaging platform for the Chinese military.

On December 2, 2017, at 10:43 UTC the Russian "Soyuz-2.1b” rocket-carrier was launched from Plesetsk Cosmodrome, Arkhangelsk region, North Russia. The launch was performed by Russian Aerospace Defense Forces. The rocket orbited the Russian “Kosmos-2524” military surveillance satellite designed to monitor adversaries’ radio signals. Analysts believe the satellite is the third in the Russian military’s series of Lotos electronic intelligence-gathering missions, following the launch of a Lotos test satellite in November 2009 and a follow-up launch of the first Lotos-S1 payload in December 2014.

On November 28, 2017 at 05:41 UTC the "Soyuz-2.1b” rocket-carrier was launched from Russian Vostochny Cosmodrome, in the Amur Oblast, in the Russian Far East. The rocket equipped with the “Fregat” upper stage was to orbit the Russian “Meteor M” weather satellite and 18 secondary payloads. The 19 satellites lost after a Fregat rocket stage ran into trouble soon after liftoff aboard a Soyuz rocket.