The Angara-A5 successfully placed a 2-ton dummy payload into geosynchronous orbit some nine hours after lifting off at 8:57 a.m. local time, according to the Moscow-based Khrunichev State Research and Space Production Center, the vehicle's prime contractor.

The rocket featured three common-core stages fueled by liquid oxygen and kerosene and was topped by a flight-proven Breeze-M upper stage. The total liftoff mass was 768 metric tons, Khrunichev said. [Best Russian Space Missions of All Time].