An Egyptian land remote sensing satellite, Egyptsat, launched from Baikonur cosmodrome on Wednesday has successfully separated from Soyuz-U launch vehicle and entered terrestrial orbit, Interfax-AVN was told at the press service of the Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos).

"At 8:28 pm the satellite successfully separated from the third stage of the launch vehicle," a spokesman said. Soyuz-U took off from pad 31 in Baikonur at 8:20 pm.

Egyptsat was designed and manufactured by Energia rocket and space corporation at orders from the Egyptian State Committee for Land Remote Sensing and Space Studies.

The satellite weighs 1,050 kilos and has a service life of 11 years. The equipment installed on it will permit taking pictures of the Earth with a resolution of 1 meter in panchromaitc mode and 4 meters in multispectral mode.

As a rule land remote sensing probes operate in solar synchronized orbits close to polar.

Source: Voice of Russia