Russia launches military satellite

Moscow, May 17 (IANS/RIA Novosti) Russia launched a satellite Thursday in a step towards expanding the cluster of country's military satellites in the orbit.

Russia's Space Forces launched a Soyuz-U carrier rocket with a Cosmos-series military satellite, according to SF spokesman Col. Alexey Zolotukhin.

The rocket was launched from the Plesetsk space centre in northern Russia.

"The launch has been carried out to expand the cluster of Russian military satellites in orbit," Zolotukhin said.

The official did not provide details on the specific nature of the spacecraft but according to NASAspaceflight.com it could be a Kobalt-M spy satellite with advanced reconnaissance and terrain mapping capabilities.

In this capacity, it will join Russia's Oko (Eye) orbital missile early warning network, which consists of about 70 satellites.

--IANS/RIA Novosti

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