Russia launches classified military satellite

Russia successfully placed into orbit a military satellite believed to be part of the Kremlin’s early warning anti-missile system.

A Soyuz rocket carrying a classified payload blasted off from the Plesetsk cosmodrome in northern Russia in the early hours of Thursday morning, the defense ministry said.

At 0109 GMT a rocket was launched that put a “space apparatus into orbit in the interests of the defense ministry,” the ministry said in a statement carried by the Interfax news agency.