Soyuz launcher puts Russian military spy satellite in orbit

A Russian military spacecraft with a high-resolution digital mapping camera is in orbit Thursday after a successful ascent aboard a Soyuz rocket. The Soyuz-2.1a rocket lifted off at 0942 GMT (5:42 a.m. EDT; 12:42 p.m. local time) from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in northern Russia, a military spaceport about 500 miles (800 kilometers) north of Moscow, according to a statement released by the Russian Ministry of Defense. The launch went normally, Russian defense officials said, and the rocket deployed its secretive payload in orbit less than 10 minutes after liftoff. More

(Source: SpaceFlight Now - Mar 25)