MOSCOW (AP) -- A Russian Proton-K rocket carrying an astrophysics satellite for the European Space Agency successfully blasted off Thursday, two days after another type of Russian rocket exploded after liftoff, killing one soldier.
Russia's Proton rocket, one of the world's most reliable, lifted off Thursday morning from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in the Central Asian nation of Kazakhstan, said Konstantin Kreidenko, spokesman for Russia's space agency, Rosaviakosmos.
About one and a half hours later, the rocket successfully delivered its accompanying satellite into orbit, space officials said.
The launch came two days after a Soyuz-U rocket carrying a communications satellite exploded several seconds after liftoff from the Plesetsk launchpad in northern Russia. Pieces of the rocket's first stage crashed down onto the grounds of the sprawling launch facility, causing minor damage.
One soldier was killed in the Tuesday night explosion, the Defense Ministry confirmed, but provided no other details. Russian news agencies reported that eight other soldiers were injured.
The cause of the explosion was under investigation. Soyuz boosters, designed on the basis of the missile that carried Sputnik into space in 1957, have failed 28 times in nearly 1,000 launches.
Russian space officials said they had no intention of halting the use of Soyuz rockets, but Russian news agencies reported Wednesday that the accident could delay other Soyuz launches, including an upcoming manned mission to the International Space Station. Two Russian cosmonauts and a Belgian astronaut are tentatively scheduled to blast off to the space station onboard a Soyuz-TMA rocket at 10:59 p.m. EST on Oct. 27 (0359 GMT on Oct. 28). The Soyuz-U that exploded was carrying a Foton-M satellite that contained scientific experiments from several countries including Russia and the United States.
Satellite launches are an important source of revenue for Russia, and the heavy-lift Proton rocket has become the Russian space industry's top earner. Russia receives tens of millions of dollars for each launch, a coveted revenue source for an industry struggling to survive on a fraction of generous Soviet-era state funding.
The Proton rocket launched Thursday was carrying a satellite equipped with the Integral astrophysics laboratory which is designed to detect gamma radiation and study black holes, according to the space agency's Web site.
The satellite equipment, which weights 2 metric tons (2.2 tons), is the heaviest the European Space Agency has ever sent into space, Russia's space agency said.
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