Russia Launches Satellite For Spying

Russia’s space military forces launched a spy satellite Wednesday to replace one which was lost a few months ago.

The Kosmos-2335, sent up from the Baikonur launch pad in northern Kazakhstan, will help the Russian military obtain information about potential military rivals, a duty officer at the Russian space military forces said. He refused to give his name.

A Kosmos-2320 satellite fell from the sky this fall, leaving Russia without a state-of-the-art spy satellite. It had been capable of photographing objects less than a yard in diameter and of providing detailed information on the location of troops, equipment, bases and other facilities.

Russia has an unspecified number of older satellites, but they cannot relay data as quickly or produce photographs in such detail, the duty officer said.

“Now we will be more comfortable with Kosmos-2335 in orbit,” he said.