MOSCOW - Russia on Sunday launched a Soyuz-FG carrier rocket with five satellites on board, the country's space agency Roscosmos said.
Roscosmos'?live webcast showed the Soyuz-FG rocket took off at 10:41 am Moscow time (0641 GMT) from the Baikonur space center in Kazakhstan.
Aboard the rocket are Russia's remote-sensing satellite Canopus-B and research satellite MKA-PN1, Belarus' remote-sensing satellite BKA, Canada's communications satellite ADS-1B and Germany's mini satellite TET-1, according to Roscosmos.
The rocket's Fregat upper stage separated from the Soyuz-FG some 10 minutes after the launch. Belarus' BKA was the first satellite to uncouple from the rocket.
The launch of the five satellites was initially scheduled in the first half of 2012, but the mission was postponed several times due to disputes between Kazakhstan and Russia over a drop zone of the rocket's first stage.
The Soyuz-FG rocket is an improved version of Russia's Soyuz-U carrier rocket. Since its maiden flight in May 2001, the rocket has been launched 23 times without a failure.
Copyright 1995 - . All rights reserved. The content (including but not limited to text, photo, multimedia information, etc) published in this site belongs to China Daily Information Co (CDIC). Without written authorization from CDIC, such content shall not be republished or used in any form. Note: Browsers with 1024*768 or higher resolution are suggested for this site.
License for publishing multimedia online 0108263 Registration Number: 130349 
