MOSCOW, July 08. /ITAR-TASS/. A Soyuz-2.1b rocket with several satellites aboard has lifted off from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan July 8.

The rocket will orbit seven satellites which include a second Meteor-M Earth remote sensing instrument intended for meteorological research and ozone and radiation monitoring in the near-Earth space. It weighs 2,778 kg and is built to operate for five years. It was created by the VNIIEM Research and Production Corporation “Space Monitoring Systems, Information and Control and Electromechanical Complexes” which makes space monitoring and information management systems.

The launch of the Meteor-M 2 satellite was initially scheduled for 2013 but then was postponed until June 28, 2014 and eventually moved to July 8 due to technical problems in the Fregat booster.

The small satellite Relek was created by the Lavochkin Research and Production Association which specializes in making unmanned space exploration vehicles. The satellite is intended for studying high-altitude electrical discharges, atmospheric phenomena and electron precipitation from the Earth’s radiation belts.

Russia’s first private spacecraft DX1 made by the Moscow regional company Dauria Aerospace was built in the Skolkovo technology park to monitor the movement of ships. This is the first such satellite in Russia.

The US satellite SkySat-2 will gather and process data and transmit high-definition images and videos.

The British satellite TechDemoSat-1 will monitor the surface of the ocean and explore outer space.

Another British craft UKube-1 is a 4 kg microsatellite. It will study the near-Earth space and its impact on spaceships.

The Norwegian satellite AISSat-2 is a 7 kg nano-satellite built to monitor the movement of ships and identify them.