A Soyuz launcher with a military satellite has been successfully launched from the Plessetsk base in northern Russia, state news agency Tass has reported under the authority of the Defense Ministry. According to the authoritative russianspaceweb.com, the Soyuz has deployed a spy satellite.
The launch of the Soyuz-2.1b took place at 12:20 PM Belgian time. The satellite that was carried along was released at the scheduled time and in the intended orbit. Everything is normal on board, it says.
Unless the payload was the military satellite Kosmos-2554, Tass did not clarify its exact nature.
Russianspaceweb.com reported that it is the spy satellite Lotos-S1 or 14F145. It is the sixth in the Liana constellation for electronic intelligence gathering for the Russian military.
It was the second time in two weeks that those forces had launched an artificial satellite, the website said.
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