A Russian Kosmos-3M booster rocket blasted off from the Plesetsk cosmodrome in the north of Russia yesterday, to put into orbit nine satellites, including one each from Russia and China.

The cluster launch includes Russia's Mozhayets-5 and Iran's first remote probing satellites Mesbah and Sinah-1, the Itar-Tass news agency quoted an official at the launch pad as saying.

"The satellites have to reach preset orbits in about half an hour. The Russian unit will be the last to separate from the booster," said the official.

Mozhayets-5, an experimental satellite, is the main payload of the launch, he said.

Its function is to assess the influence of radiation on avionics at an altitude of 700 to 800 km, said the Itar-Tass report.

China's DMC+4, which is developed by Britain's SSTL, is a remote-probing unit equipped with two photographic cameras. One of the cameras will function in the natural-disaster warning mode and the other will be used in cartography projects.

Iran's Mesbah satellite was manufactured by Italy's Carlo Gavazzi Space. The Sinah-1 was made in Iran.

Other satellites include the UK's TopSat and SSETI Express of the European Space Agency.

The two-stage booster Kosmos-3M can take payloads of up to 1,500 kilograms to the 250-1,700 km high orbits.

(Xinhua News Agency October 28, 2005)