MOSCOW, April 29 (Itar-Tass) -- Military satellite Kosmos-2450 has been put into the designated orbit by a Soyuz-U rocket.
The satellite reached the target orbit at 21:06 Moscow time (1706 GMT). “The operation proceeded as scheduled,” Space Troops spokesman Colonel Alexei Zolotukhin told Itar-Tass.
The medium liquid-fuel three-stage carrier rocket Soyuz-U is designed to deliver satellites weighing up to 7,200 kilograms to orbits at an altitude of about 200 kilometres.
The rocket was made by CSKB-Progress design bureau. It is fuelled by liquid oxygen and hydrocarbons. The take-off mass is 311 tonnes, length – 34 metres. The first rocket was launched from Plesetsk on May 18, 1973. Since then 430 Soyuz launches have been made from this spaceport. The previous launch was on November 14, 2008.
Deputy Defence Minister Vladimir Popovkin said earlier that two military communication satellites and a “totally new military intelligence satellite” would be launched in 2009.
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