MOSCOW (Interfax) -- A Soyuz U rocket booster carrying a Cosmos-series military satellite lifted off from the northern Russian cosmodrome at Plesetsk in the Arkhangelsk region at 1:55 p.m. (17:55 GMT; 9:55 p.m. Moscow time) Tuesday, the Russian Space Force told Interfax.

This was the first launch of a military satellite this year. The space troops' combat duty crews coordinated preparations for the mission and the launch of the spacecraft itself.

The Soyuz U was adopted for military use some 25 years ago in May 1976. Rockets in the series have been launched about 400 times from both the Baikonur and Plesetsk cosmodromes.