A payload of 14 satellites was delivered on April 17 in the first launch of a Dnepr rocket since a July 2006 failure, Russian officials reported.

Egyptian, Saudi and U.S. satellites were lofted into orbit after taking off from Kazakhstan’s Baikonur Cosmodrome. The Ukrainian-Russian Dnepr-1 rocket’s payload included seven tiny research satellites developed by American and Colombian universities.

A pico-satellite developed by Boeing to evaluate miniature spacecraft technologies was also orbited, the company announced. CubeSat TestBed-1 was reportedly ready for a series of on-orbit demonstrations to help Boeing develop nano-satellites weighing less than 22 pounds.

Meanwhile the launch of the German Earth-integrated satellite TerraSAR-X was rescheduled for late May, the German Aerospace Center announced last week. No reason was given for the delay; the center described the satellite as “in excellent condition” while awaiting its mission.

TerraSAR-X is the first German public-private partnership satellite, jointly realized by DLR and EADS Astrium, which is carrying the costs of the development, building, and deployment of the satellite. Infoterra GmbH, a subsidiary of EADS Astrium, is responsible for its commercial marketing.