According to the Russian news agency, Itar-Tass, a Molnia-M launch vehicle of the medium class blasted off on Tuesday from the Plesetsk cosmodrome to put into orbit a military spacecraft of the Kosmos series, Itar-Tass learned from chief of the public relations service of the Space Troops Alexei Zolotukhin. Reports from the spokesman of the Space Troops, “The carrier was launched by teams of the Space Troops at 08.00 MT according to a routine regime.”

The satellite should have entered a targeted orbit at 08.56 outside the zone of radio visibility of the land automated control center. The aim of launching the spacecraft of the Kosmos series is to build up the Russian military orbital grouping. (Reports from other agencies indicate this was a spy satellite.)

The previous Molnia-M carrier was launched from the Plesetsk cosmodrome on October 23, 2007. The launchings of this missile from the Plesetsk cosmodrome has been made for around 40 years. A total of 225 Molnia-M carriers have been launched over this time.