[Satellite Today 07-27-09] Russia has launched a secret military satellite and a civilian search and rescue satellite aboard a  Kosmos 3M rocket launched July 21, according to a July 22 report from Novosti News Agency.
    The two-stage rocket, which launched from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in Northern Russia at 11:57 p.m. EDT, delivered its payloads to orbit about an hour later.
    According to Novosti, the Russian Defense Ministry’s spacecraft is believed to be a Parus navigation satellite, circling the Earth in 620-mile-high orbits over the poles. Parus will likely be renamed Kosmos 2454 when it joins Russia’s military satellite fleet.
    The search and rescue spacecraft is the Sterkh 1 satellite, part of Russia’s contribution to the COSPAS-SARSAT international satellite system for search and rescue. The spacecraft aims to detect distress beacon signals from land, sea and air, determine their location, and relay the information to emergency officials.