Soyuz-2.1b
© Sputnik. Mikhail Voskresenskiy
The launch of the carrier rocket from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome is the fourth made this year.

"The middle-class carrier rocket Soyuz-2.1b successfully put the satellite of the Russian Defense Ministry into orbit at the set time," the Russian Defense Ministry has announced.

The rocket was launched from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in Russia's northwestern Arkhangelsk region at 10:43 GMT earlier on Saturday.

According to the ministry, the rocket's launch and flight was controlled by a ground-based automatic control system, with the commander of Russia's Aerospace Defense Forces, Lt. Gen. Alexander Golovko, in charge of administrating the launch of the rocket.


​This is the fourth launch of a Soyuz-2.1b carrier rocket from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome since the beginning of the year, with the previous one taking place on September 22, when a Glonass-M navigation satellite was sent into orbit.