Russia Postpones Launch of Dnepr Carrier Rocket

Russia postpones launch of Dnepr carrier rocket

MOSCOW Russia postponed the launch of a Dnepr carrier rocket with a group of satellites onboard to April 17 due to technical reasons, the Russian news agency RIA Novosti reported on Wednesday.

The launch was previously set for Tuesday morning from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan and was put off due to problems with the rocket booster, the RIA Novosti news agency cited the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos) spokesman Igor Panarin as saying.

The rocket is scheduled to put into orbit more than a dozen satellites, including an Egyptian satellite, six Saudi Arabian satellites and several other satellites.

The launch will be the first one after the Dnepr rocket with 18 satellites crashed on July 26, 2006 shortly after blasting off from the Baikonur cosmodrome.

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