A Russian Soyuz rocket carried six US Globalstar satellites into orbit on Tuesday, blasting off from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, Russia's space agency said.

"The launch took place at 21:11 Moscow time (1711 GMT)," Roskomos said in a statement.

The six second-generation satellites belonging to California-based Globalstar will separate from the Soyuz-2 rocket in two stages, the statement said.

They will be used for communications and to provide data to businesses and government agencies, replacing first-generation satellites launched in 1999.