Moscow, Sept 21 (Interfax-AVN) – Russia launched a Proton-M heavy launch vehicle carrying a military satellite from the Baikonur space center in Kazakhstan in the early hours of Wednesday, Col. Alexei Zolotukhin, a Defense Ministry spokesman for the Space Forces, told Interfax-AVN.
"The launch of a Proton-M launch vehicle carrying a spacecraft was successfully launched from pad 24, platform 81, of the Baikonur space center for the Defense Ministry’s needs at 2:47 a.m. Moscow time," Zolotukhin said.
The Space Forces tracked the launch sequence using automated control equipment, he said.
It was reported earlier that the launch of this spacecraft was originally planned for Aug 31 but was postponed because of an investigation into a failed launch of an Express-AM4 telecommunications satellite.
The Wednesday launch has been the 18th one performed by Russia in 2011 and the first one following the crash of a Progress M-12M resupply spacecraft on Aug 24.
