Russia's Proton-M carrier rocket with a military purpose spacecraft was launched early on Wednesday from the Baikonur space center in Kazakhstan, a Space Forces spokesman said The launch took place at 2:47 Moscow time (22:47 GMT Tuesday), as scheduled. "The spacecraft is scheduled to separate from the Briz-M booster at 11:48 Moscow time [7:48 GMT]," Col. Alexei Zolotukhin said.
The Russian Proton-M carrier rocket.
The Russian aerospace industry has recently faced a series of misfortunes. On August 18, a Russian Proton-M rocket lost the prized Express-AM4 satellite that was designed to provide digital television and secure government communications for Siberia and the Far East. One week after the Express-AM4 went off course, a Soyuz-U booster malfunctioned, preventing the Progress M-12M cargo spacecraft from reaching orbit. Its debris fell in Gorny Altai, Russia. (Source: RIA Novosti)