spacetoday.net: Kosmos launches German military radar satellite

Posted: Thu, Mar 27, 2008, 6:33 PM ET (2233 GMT)
Kosmos 3M launch (ESA)

A Kosmos rocket launched the fourth in a series of small radar imaging satellites for the German military. The Kosmos-3M rocket lifted off from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in northern Russia at 1:15 pm EDT (1715 GMT) and placed the SAR-Lupe 4 satellite into low Earth orbit about a half-hour later. The launch had been planned for Tuesday, but was delayed two days by poor weather at the launch site. The satellite, built by German company OHB-System, is the fourth of five planned small satellites designed to radar imagery for the German military. The fifth and final satellite is scheduled for launch late this year.