Russia launches military satellite after delay
Russia on Wednesday successfully put a military satellite into orbit after a three-week delay caused by the failure of one its workhorse Proton-M rockets, the Roskosmos space agency said.
The satellite, which was launched "in the interests of the ministry of defence," separated from its Briz-M upper stage booster without problems at 0748 GMT, the agency said.
Roskosmos was forced to temporarily ground all Proton-M rockets that come equipped with the Briz-M after losing an advanced telecommunications satellite on August 18.
Only six days later, a Progress cargo vessel flying to the International Space Station aboard a Soyuz carrier rocket crashed back to Earth less than six minutes after launch.
Some Soyuz missions have since also been grounded, forcing a delay of the next manned flight to the space station until November 14.
The military satellite was originally scheduled to take off on August 31, the RBC news agency reported.
(c) 2011 AFP
