Posted: Sat, Feb 28, 2009, 3:00 PM ET (2000 GMT)
A Proton rocket launched a military communications satellite on Saturday. The Proton-K lifted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome at 11:10 pm EST Friday (0410 GMT Saturday) and injected the Raduga satellite into its intended orbit six and a half hours later. No additional details were released about the spacecraft other than that it is a "military-purpose" satellite; Raduga spacecraft are typically geosynchronous communications satellites.

Related Links:

•  Itar-Tass article
•  Interfax article
•  RIA Novosti article
•  AFP article
•  Xinhua article