MOSCOW. Sept. 14 (Xinhua) -- Russia put a military satellite into orbit on Thursday from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, Russian news agencies reported.

    The Kosmos military satellite, carried by the Soyuz-U medium launch vehicle, "is designed to reinforce the orbital group of military satellites," head of the Space Forces Public Relations Service Alexei Kuznetsov was quoted by the Interfax news agency assaying.

    The launch took place at 5.41 p.m. Moscow time (1341 GMT) as planned and was delivered into orbit at 5:49 p.m. Moscow time (1349 GMT).

    Russia's orbital grouping numbers about a hundred space vehicles at the moment, including slightly more than 50 defense satellites, the Itar-Tass news agency said.

    More specifically, the defense-oriented orbital grouping includes navigation vehicles, telecommunications and ballistic missile early satellites, as well as satellites for electronic and photography reconnaissance and for supervision of world oceans.

    Colonel-General Vladimir Popovkin, the commander of Russian Space Troops said earlier Russia has a problematic situation in the field of reconnaissance satellites.

    "In the next two years, we'll replace the satellites of previous generations and will launch the ones that have an active orbital life of seven to ten years," Popovkin said. Enditem