Russia sends military satellite into orbit 

April 16

A Russian Soyuz-U rocket on Friday successfully delivered a Cosmos defense satellite into orbit, said spokesman for Russian Space Forces Alexei Zolotukhin.

The rocket blasted off from the Plesetsk cosmodrome at 7:00 p.m. Moscow time (1500 GMT), and the satellite reached the designated orbit about eight minutes later.

This is the second time for Russia to launch a defense satellite this year. A Proton-M rocket delivered a Raduga military communications satellite into orbit from the Kazakh Baikonur cosmodrome in late January.

Russia reportedly runs a system of 60-70 military satellites with reconnaissance, missile early warning and other capabilities.