A rocket carrying three Russian GLONASS navigation satellites took off from the Russian cosmodrome at Baikonur in Kazakhstan, news agencies reported. The Proton-K booster rocket blasted off at 11:35 a.m. Moscow time (3:35 a.m. EDT) and entered low-earth orbit eight minutes later, a Russian Space Forces spokesman said, according to the Russian news agency Interfax.
Kazakhstan suspended Proton launches in September after a similar booster filled with highly toxic heptyl fuel plunged into open countryside near the industrial city of Zhezkazgan a few minutes after take-off.