Posted: Thu, Sep 17, 2009, 11:03 PM ET (0303 GMT)
A Soyuz rocket placed into orbit a Russian weather satellite and several secondary payloads on Thursday. The Soyuz-2.1b lifted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome at 11:55 am EDT (1555 GMT) Thursday and placed the Meteor-M1 satellite into low Earth orbit (LEO). The satellite is the first of three LEO weather satellites planned by the Russian space agency Roskosmos. The launch had been planned for Tuesday but was delayed twice because of weather and technical issues. Also on board the Soyuz launch were five smaller satellites, including the Sumbandila remote sensing satellite from South Africa.

Related Links:

•  Spaceflight Now article
•  RIA Novosti article
•  Cape Times (South Africa) article
•  Roskosmos press release