Soyuz rocket launches military payload to orbit

Russia launched a military spy satellite into space Friday on a Soyuz rocket from the country's Plesetsk Cosmodrome, according to the defense ministry. The secret payload lifted off at 1044 GMT (5:44 a.m. EST), or in the early afternoon at Plesetsk, a military-run launch base in Russia's northern Arkhangelsk Oblast. The three-stage Soyuz rocket delivered the spacecraft to an elliptical orbit with a high point of about 560 miles and a low point of approximately 120 miles. The orbit's inclination is about 67.2 degrees, according to tracking data. More

(Source: Space Flight Now - Nov 21)