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A Russian rocket carrying six satellites, including a first-ever Nigerian satellite, went into orbit on Saturday after a successful launch from a base at Plesetsk in northern Russia. The Kosmos-3M rocket carrying the satellites -- two Russian, and one each from Britain, South Korea, Nigeria and Turkey -- lifted off at 10:12 amand went into orbit just over an hour later, news agencies reported. All six satellites were outside radio visibility from Russia at the time they went into orbit. The British satellite UK-DMC, NigeriaSat-1 of Nigeria and BilSat-1 of Turkey are to join the international system known as the Disaster Monitoring Constellation incorporating Britain, Algeria, Turkey, Nigeria, China, and Thailand. For Nigeria, the launch represented the country's entry into the space age, making it the third African country to have a space presence after South Africa and Algeria. The event has been keenly anticipated by officials and the media in Lagos. The South-Korean satellite KAISTSat-4 is equipped with a telescope for watching agglomerations of space gas. Turkey has seen three previous satellite launches, though the satellites were built by France's Aerospatiale and launched by the European Ariane rocket. After launch, the two Russian satellites were brought under the operational control of Russia's Space Forces, the space wing of the Russian armed forces. The Russian satellites, Mozhaets-4 and Larets, are designed for research experiments and training of cadets at the Mozhaiski Aerospace Academy in Saint Petersburg and for attuning ground radars respectively. The Kosmos-3M rocket had originally been due to lift off on Friday but was delayed for technical reasons. All rights reserved. � 2004 Agence France-Presse. Sections of the information displayed on this page (dispatches, photographs, logos) are protected by intellectual property rights owned by Agence France-Presse. As a consequence, you may not copy, reproduce, modify, transmit, publish, display or in any way commercially exploit any of the content of this section without the prior written consent of Agence France-Presse. Quick Links   Nov 02, 2006 |
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