Russia Locates Missing Military Satellite

Russian engineers work on a navigation satellite in this photo from last year.

Russia's military says it has located a newly launched military satellite that went missing a day ago after entering into the wrong orbit.

The military's space forces could not establish contact with the GEO-IK-2 satellite for hours following its launch on February 1 from the Plesetsk launch site in northern Russia.

The head of the space forces, Oleg Ostapenko, said today they had located and established communications with the craft. The satellite was built to study and map the earth’s surface.

The mishap follows a failed launch of three other Russian satellites in December.

compiled from agency reports