In article ,
Dr John Stockton wrote:
...the description and the orbital
elements are consistent with a launch toward a 95.4-deg inclination -- one
of the standard Baikonur-Soyuz inclinations -- plus a bit of yaw steering
by the Fregat stage to reach 98.7. Not a path Baikonur uses every week,
but not anything especially new and strange.

"The launcher trajectory will be north-west - heading towards Svalbard
and north Greenland." ...

I suspect that means "north and a bit west". The northern ends of
Svalbard and Greenland are just above 80degN, in about the right places
for a straightforward launch from Baikonur to a 98-99deg orbit to cross
them.

Could the true original information have had not north-west (315 deg)
but north north west (in which Turnpike's spelling checker would like to
"correct" the repeated word) (337.5 deg) or north by west (348.75 deg)...

Either of those is at least roughly plausible.
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