Russia launches military satellite

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Russian Space Forces launched a military satellite from the Baikonur space center in Kazakhstan on Thursday, the RIA-Novosti news agency reports. The Kosmos-2406 satellite was put into orbit by the Zenit-2 carrier-rocket at 05-42 Moscow time, an official representative of the Russian Space Forces told the agency.
The launch had been delayed three times for technical reasons. It had initially been scheduled for April 25. Then, the launch procedure was interrupted due to a failure in the energy supply systems.

On April 26 another attempt to launch the satellite was made and failed again. The rocket was taken off the launch pad and inspected. A source in the Space Forces has said that the inspection revealed some flaws in the satellite itself.

The Kosmos-series satellites are used by the Russian military for intelligence purposes. The first satellite of the series was launched in 1962.