Posted: Fri, Jun 15, 2007, 8:05 AM ET (1205 GMT)
A Dnepr rocket launched a German radar satellite early Friday. The Dnepr lifted off from a silo at the Baikonur Cosmodrome at 10:14 pm EDT Thursday (0214 GMT, 8:14 am local time) and placed the TerraSAR-X satellite into a Sun-synchronous orbit at an altitude of approximately 514 kilometers. The spacecraft, built by Astrium for German company Infoterra, carries an X-band radar that will be used to provide medium- and high-resolution radar imagery of the Earth's surface. The launch is the second this year for the Denpr, a converted ICBM; another Dnepr, carrying the Genesis 2 spacecraft for Bigelow Aerospace, is expected to launch in the near future from the Yasny launch site in Russia.

Related Links:

•  RIA Novosti article
•  AFP article
•  DLR press release
•  Infoterra press release
•  Kosmotras press release