Russian
intelligence gets an upgrade with satellite launch
Russia launched a next-generation military reconnaissance satellite
Friday, ushering in an era of digital mapping from orbit after decades of
relying on film returned to Earth inside landing capsules.
The
mission blasted off at 1101 GMT (6:01 a.m. EST) Friday from the Plesetsk
Cosmodrome about 500 miles north of Moscow. A three-stage kerosene-fueled Soyuz
2-1a rocket deployed the spacecraft less than 10 minutes later, the Russian
Defense Ministry said in a statement.
The
secretive satellite — the first in the so-called the Bars M series — is
believed to carry a high-resolution digital camera to collect global imagery
for Russian military forces. Its exact capabilities are kept secret by Russian authorities.
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