MOSCOW, February 9. /TASS/. A satellite intended to serve the needs of Russia’s Defense Ministry has reached its intended orbital path after being launched earlier on Friday from the Plesetsk spaceport in the country’s northwest by a Soyuz-2.1v rocket, the Defense Ministry said.

Earlier reports said that Russia’s Aerospace Forces launched a Soyuz-2.1v rocket carrying a satellite to serve the needs of the Russian Defense Ministry at 10:03 a.m. (7:03 a.m. GMT - TASS).

"At the estimated time, the spacecraft was launched into orbit and taken under the control of ground-based facilities of the Russian Aerospace Forces," the ministry said in a statement. "Stable telemetry communication has been established and maintained with the spacecraft, while its onboard systems are functioning normally," it added.

After launching the satellite into orbit, officers from the Aerospace Forces’ Main Center for Outer Space Reconnaissance made an entry about the spacecraft in the Russian Space Control System’s Main Register of Space Objects.