On 19 May 2022, at 11:03 MSK (08:03 UTC) crews of the Air and Space Forces conducted a successful launch of a Soyuz 2.1a launcher from the launch pad No. 4 of the launch complex No. 43 of the Plesetsk test site. The satellite delivered into orbit is believed to be a digital cartographic satellite Bars-M.

According to an official statement, the satellite is designated Cosmos-2556. It was registered as object 52713 by NORAD and received international designation 2022-054A.

This is the third launch of satellites of the Bars-M type. The previous launch took place in March 2016.