Posted: Wed, Apr 2, 2003, 10:32 AM ET (1532 GMT)
A Molniya booster launched a Russian military satellite early Wednesday. The Molniya-M booster lifted off from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in northern Russia at 8:53 pm EST Tuesday (0153 GMT Wednesday) and placed a satellite into a highly-elliptical, inclined orbit known as a Molniya orbit. The spacecraft, designed Kosmos 2397, is believed to be a military communications satellite. The launch was the first from Plesetsk in 2003 and also the first Russian military launch of the year; it is also only the second Russian launch overall in 2002, after a Soyuz launch of a Progress spacecraft to ISS two months ago.
