Posted: Sat, Jan 31, 2009, 7:55 AM ET (1255 GMT)

A Tsiklon rocket successfully launched Russia's first science satellite in several years on Friday. The Tsiklon-3 rocket lifted off from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in northern Russia at 8:30 am EST (1330 GMT) Friday and placed the Koronas-Foton satellite into a polar orbit. The launch had been scheduled for Thursday but was delayed by a problem with the fueling system for the rocket's second stage. The spacecraft, the first Russian scientific satellite developed in several years, is designed to monitor solar activity; two earlier versions of the spacecraft were launched in 1994 and 2001. The launch is also reportedly the last for the Tsiklon-3.