A Russian Soyuz U launcher carrying a classified military satellite took off from Baikonur Cosmodrome at 9:25 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time (13:25 GMT; 5:25 p.m. Moscow Time) from Area 1 of Baikonur, also known as "Gagarin's pad."
As is traditional for the Russian military space program, the satellite announcement described it as belonging to the Cosmos series, but no details of the mission are expected to be released.
| Update: Satellite Reaches Orbit |
| The Russian Soyuz U rocket successfully delivered a classified military satellite into orbit from Baikonur Cosmodrome today. |
The spacecraft officially designated as Cosmos 2370 took off from Area1 launch pad in Baikonur at 9:25 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time (13:25 GMT; 5:25 p.m. Moscow Time). |
The satellite separated from the third stage of the launch vehicle at 9:34 a.m. EDT in low Earth orbit. |
Soyuz rockets have sometimes been used to launch imaging reconnaissance spacecraft known as Yantar (Amber). In the past the majority of such launches would take off from Russia's northern facility in Plesetsk. The northern cosmodrome would allow the satellites to reach orbits that provide global coverage of Earths surface -- optimal for imaging spacecraft.
The use of launch facility in Baikonur might indicate that the new generation of the reconnaissance satellite is about to be introduced.
The world's first satellite, Sputnik 1, and Yuri Gagarin's Vostok 1 spacecraft both took off from the same launch complex. Currently, the launch complex is maintained by the civilian personnel of the Russian Aviation and Space Agency, Rosaviacosmos.
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