Photo is © Mikhail Japaridze/TASS

The Russian news service TASS is reporting that a Soyuz-2.1b carrier rocket with a new generation military spacecraft has blasted off from the Plesetsk spaceport in northern Russia, the Defense Ministry said on Thursday.

The carrier rocket was launched at 9:34 a.m. Moscow Time (6:34 GMT) from site No. 43 at the Plesetsk spaceport in the Archangelsk Region by an operational crew of the Russian Aerospace Force’s space troops, the press service said.

All preparations and the launch of the carrier rocket were held as scheduled. The launch was overseen by Commander of Space Forces, Lt. Gen. Alexander Golovko.

This is the first launch of the Soyuz-2 carrier rocket from the Plesetsk spaceport in 2017. Last time, the carrier rocket of this type blasted off from the spaceport in northern Russia on May 29, 2016. The flight tests of the Soyuz-2 spacecraft began at the spaceport on November 8, 2004. Over the past 13 years, 29 launches of Soyuz-2 carrier rockets in their upgraded 1a, 1b and 1v modifications have been carried out at the Plesetsk spaceport.