A carrier rocket with a cluster of foreign satellites aboard blasted off from Russia's Yasny-Dombarovsky launch site in the southeastern Orenburg region, the Strategic Rocket Forces said Thursday.

The launch of the Dnepr rocket and the insertion of foreign spacecraft took place at 11:10 a.m. Moscow time (0710 GMT). It took 15 minutes to bring the satellites to their designated orbits, said a spokesman with the Strategic Rocket Forces.

"All spacecraft have successfully detached from the booster. A command has been given to make the separation maneuver," according to the observation center in the launch site.

The rocket carries satellites from several countries, including DubaiSat-2 from the United Arab Emirates, STSat-3 from South Korea, UniSat-5 from Italy, SkySat-1 and AprizeSat-7/8 from the United States, Brite-PL from Poland, GOMX-1 from Denmark, WNISat from Canada.

The Dnepr rocket is a conversion of a strategic ballistic missile put off military service. The missile is converted for commercial use by Russian and Ukrainian enterprises.

Before Thursday, the launching operator Kosmotras has launched 18 such rockets with more than 60 satellites put on orbits.

Source: Xinhua News Agency