Russia launches first Soyuz rocket since August crash
A Russian Soyuz-2 rocket launched a GLONASS navigation satellite on Sunday, the defence ministry said, in the first launch since a freighter carried by the flagship vehicle crashed into Earth in August.
Russia has "successfully completed the launch of a Soyuz-2 rocket with the GLONASS-M (satellite) at 0015 (2015 GMT)," Colonel Alexei Zolotukhin was quoted as saying by the Interfax news agency.
The satellite was launched from the Plesetsk cosmodrome 800 kilometres (500 miles) south of Moscow.
In August, an unmanned Progress space ship carrying tonnes of cargo for the International Space Station (ISS) crashed into Siberia in August shortly after blast-off.
Sunday's launch had been scheduled for late August, but was repeatedly postponed following cargo ship's crash.
(c) 2011 AFP