Article Posted on : - May 18, 2012

A file photo of Soyuz rocket.

MOSCOW (BNS): Russia has launched a Cosmos-series military satellite into orbit, a Ria Novosti report said.

The satellite was launched with Soyuz-U carrier rocket from the Plesetsk space centre in northern Russia on Thursday, it said.

"The launch has been carried out to expand the cluster of Russian military satellites in orbit," Russian Space Force's spokesman Col. Alexey Zolotukhin was quoted as saying.

Russia has a network of about 60-70 military reconnaissance satellites.

The Soyuz-U rocket is designed to orbit Soyuz and Progress manned and cargo spacecraft, as well as special-purpose satellites such as Cosmos, Resurs-F, Foton and Bion.

According to a Xinhua report, Russia plans to replace all the Soyuz-U rockets by new generation of rockets, including Soyuz-2 and Angara-A3 medium-class carrier rockets.