Posted: Sat, Apr 17, 2010, 8:01 PM ET (0001 GMT)
A Soyuz rocket launched a military reconnaissance satellite late Friday. The Soyuz-U rocket lifted off from the Plesetsk cosmodrome in northern Russia at 11:00 am EDT (1500 GMT) and placed the Kosmos 2462 satellite into orbit. Russian officials said nothing about the spacecraft other than acknowledging it was a military satellite, but Western observers believe it is the latest Kobalt-class optical reconnaissance satellite.

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