On December 19, 2014 the Space and Air Defense Forces carried out a successful launch of a Strela space launcher from the silo No. 175 of the launch site No. 59 of the Baykonur space launch site. The launch took place at 07:43 MSK (04:43 UTC). The satellite that the rocket successfully delivered into orbit is a Kondor-E imaging satellite that was built and launched for a foreign customer, reportedly for South Africa. (UPDATE: Yes, it was South Africa)

The satellite was registered by NORAD as an object 40353, it received international designation 2014-084A. According to the NORAD data (see Zarya.info), the satellite is deployed in a nearly circular orbit with altitude of about 500 km and inclination of 74.75 degrees. The orbital period of the satellite is 94.6 min.

The Strela launcher is a converted UR-100NUTTH/SS-19 missile. The launch may be counted as one of the two ballistic missile launches that were expected to be carried out in December 2014.

Previous (and the first) Strela/Kondor launch took place in June 2013.