MOSCOW -- A military satellite of the Cosmos series was launched Thursday from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

"The launch was carried out for the Defense Ministry's needs from the state testing space center Baikonur, using a heavy-weight space rocket Proton-K, at 8:23 a.m. Moscow time" on Thursday, the press service of the Russian Space Forces told the Interfax news agency.

Launch time on the U.S. east coast was 12:23 a.m. EDT (0423 GMT).

The first launch of a Proton-K rocket in 2003 was carried out by the Space Forces, which controlled its flight after launch and the placement of the satellite into orbit.

Another Proton-K rocket, this one with a Breeze M upper stage, is scheduled for launch Monday at 6:15 p.m. EDT (2215 GMT).

It is to carry the commercial AMC-9 communications spacecraft on a satellite-delivery mission marketed by International Launch Services.

The Russian workhorse booster will be rolled out to its launch pad Friday.

In the meantime, the Baikonur spaceport will be busy supporting launch of a Soyuz FG rocket late Friday at 11:54 p.m. EDT (0354 GMT).

Cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko and astronaut Ed Lu will fly aboard the Soyuz TMA-2 spacecraft and dock with the International Space Station two days later.