( RIA Novosti ) - A Russian Dnepr carrier rocket has successfully put Germany's TerraSAR-X satellite in orbit, the Russian space agency said Friday.
The Dnepr launch vehicle, based on the RS-20 (SS-18 Satan) ballistic missile, lifted off from the Baikonur space center in Kazakhstan at about 6.14 a.m. Moscow time ( 2.14 a.m. GMT).
"The launch has been conducted successfully," the Federal Space Agency said. "The separation of the foreign satellite from the carrier rocket occurred on schedule, and control over the spacecraft has been passed to the client."
TerraSAR-X is a new-generation, high resolution Earth remote-sensing satellite, operating in the X-band at 9.65 GHz. It will provide a continuous stream of Earth observation data for at least 5 years.
The spacecraft has been jointly developed by the state-run German Aerospace Center (DLR), and Europe's leading satellite company EADS Astrium GmbH.
The latest Dnepr mission on April 17 put 16 foreign satellites into orbit.