Russia launches European weather satellite

MOSCOW - Russia on Monday successfully launched a European weather satellite, MetOp-B, from the Baikonur space center in Kazakhstan, the Russian federal space agency Roscosmos said.

The satellite, atop a Russian Soyuz-2.1a carrier rocket, was launched at 8:28 pm Moscow time (1628 GMT), Roscosmos spokesman Alexei Kuznetsov told the press.

"The separation of the satellite from the Fregat booster is scheduled for 21:37 Moscow time (1737 GMT)," Kuznetsov said.

The 4-ton MetOp-B will be placed on a near-polar orbit some 800-850 km to Earth. The satellite's service life is up to five years.

Built by the EADS Astrium company for the European Space Agency, it is the second one in a series of three weather satellites. MetOp-A was also launched from the Baikonur center in 2006, while MetOp-C is still being built.

The three satellites are part of a European-US orbital group designed for meteorological monitoring in the hard-to-reach polar regions. These satellites are also equipped with devices to detect the whereabouts of ships and airplanes in emergency situations.