MOSCOW, May 17 (RIA Novosti)
Russia’s Space Forces launched on Thursday a Soyuz-U carrier rocket with a Cosmos-series military satellite, SF spokesman Col. Alexey Zolotukhin said.
The rocket was launched from the Plesetsk space center 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.
The Soyuz-U rocket is designed to orbit Soyuz and Progress manned and cargo spacecraft, as well as special-purpose satellites such as Cosmos, Resurs-F, Foton and Bion.
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