Posted: Thu, Apr 17, 2014, 7:42 AM ET (1142 GMT)

A Soyuz rocket successfully launched an Egyptian remote sensing satellite on Wednesday. The Soyuz-U rocket lifted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome at 12:20 pm EDT (1620 GMT, 10:20 pm local time) Wednesday and placed the EgyptSat-2 spacecraft into a low Earth orbit at an inclination of 51.6 degrees. The satellite, built by RSC Energia for the Egyptian government, is designed to provide imagery for agricultural and environmental studies.