A Russian Dnepr rocket carrying two Japanese scientific satellites blasted off from Russia's Baikonur space centre in Kazakhstan early Wednesday, Russian space corps officials said.
The blastoff was at 1:10 am (2110 GMT Tuesday) and the OICETS and INDEX satellites were placed into geostationary orbit 15 minutes later, officials quoted by the Itar-Tass news agency said.
The Dnepr was created on the basis of the PC-20 ("Satan") missile, and "can be launched in any weather conditions, as well as stay loaded on the launchpad for almost unlimited time and be ready to launch," the Russian Roscosmos space agency representative said.
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US Satellite Successfully Placed In Orbit
Baikonur, Kazakhstan (AFP) Aug 14, 2005
A Russian Soyuz rocket carrying US telecommunications satellite Galaxy-14 blasted off from Russia's Baikonur space centre in Kazakhstan early Sunday after a 24-hour postponement and successfully placed it in orbit.
