A Russian Soyuz rocket fired six satellites into space Friday, launching missions to serve defense agencies in Europe and Chile with high-resolution imagery and electronic intelligence.

The passengers included France's Pleiades 1 imaging platform, four French ELISA electronic intelligence satellites and the SSOT Earth observation satellite for Chile.

Liftoff of the 151-foot-tall Soyuz launcher was at 0203:48 GMT (9:03:48 p.m. EST) from the Guiana Space Center on the northeast coast of South America. Lighting up the night sky with brilliant orange flame, the kerosene-fueled rocket dodged scattered clouds and flew north away from the French Guiana spaceport.

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Officials have announced a successful separation of SSOT, completing tonight's launch.

Controllers confirm a good fourth burn of the Fregat rocket stage and a successful jettison of the APAS-S multi-payload adapter. Now awaiting news on the deployment of the SSOT satellite for Chile.

The third burn of the Fregat upper stage went according to plan, leaving one more firing before the separation of the final payload on this mission.

Two brief ignitions of the Fregat upper stage are planned at 0407 GMT (11:07 p.m. EST) and 0512 GMT (12:12 a.m. EST), then the rocket's multi-payload adapter will be jettisoned at 0515 GMT (12:15 a.m. EST) to set up for the deployment of Chile's SSOT Earth observation satellite at 0529 GMT (12:29 a.m. EST).

ELISA separation confirmed! These satellites, jointly developed by the French space agency and the French military, each weigh nearly 265 pounds and will monitor radar sites around the world to aid electronic warfare efforts.

The ELISA satellites should now be released from the ASAP-S auxiliary payload adapter of the Fregat upper stage, but this event hasn't been confirmed yet.

Pleiades 1 separation confirmed! The satellite's solar panels were expected to be extended 30 seconds after separation from the Fregat upper stage.

The four ELISA radar detection satellites should be released at T+plus 59 minutes, or around 0302 GMT (10:02 p.m. EST).

T+plus 56 minutes. Awaiting confirmation of the separation of Pleiades 1, a 2,138-pound French satellite to provide high-resolution imagery to civil and military users.

T+plus 54 minutes. One minute until Pleiades 1 separation.

T+plus 48 minutes. The hydrazine-fueled upper stage has shut down for the second time. Separation of the Pleiades 1 satellites is expected at T+plus 55 minutes.

T+plus 45 minutes. Arianespace now confirms the second Fregat burn is underway to reach a circular 435-mile-high orbit to deploy the Pleiades 1 and ELISA payloads.

T+plus 38 minutes. A ground station in South Korea has acquired radio signals from the Fregat upper stage.

T+plus 27 minutes. The Fregat and its six satellites are flying over the Arctic now.

T+plus 20 minutes. The Fregat upper stage and its six passengers are now flying out of communications of launch controllers. This is a planned loss of communication.

T+plus 16 minutes. Arianespace has received confirmation of the completion of the first Fregat upper stage burn and the rocket is now in orbit. The second burn comes at 0245 GMT (9:45 p.m. EST).

T+plus 10 minutes. The Fregat upper stage should now be firing for the first of four burns during this launch. This first ignition is designed to place the rocket and its payloads in a temporary parking orbit above Earth.

Follow along with this timeline of the launch sequence.

T+plus 9 minutes. The Soyuz third stage and Fregat upper stage have now separated.

T+plus 6 minutes, 30 seconds. The Soyuz is now flying 130 miles high at a speed of 10,760 mph.

T+plus 5 minutes. At an altitude of 102 miles and a velocity of 8,500 mph, the Soyuz rocket's second stage has shut down and separated. Third stage ignition is also confirmed.

T+plus 3 minutes, 40 seconds. The rocket's 13.5-foot ST-type nose fairing has jettisoned now that the launcher is out of the lower atmosphere.

T+plus 2 minutes. The four strap-on boosters of the Soyuz rocket have separated at an altitude of approximately 37 miles. The core stage continues firing.

LIFTOFF of the Soyuz with carrying six satellites for armed forces agencies in France and Chile.

T-minus 15 seconds. Ignition of the Soyuz rocket's engines.

T-minus 1 minute. The Soyuz will transition to internal power 40 seconds before liftoff.

T-minus 2 minutes. The upper umbilical mast servicing the Soyuz rocket's six satellite payloads has disconnected from the launcher.

T-minus 4 minutes. The exact liftoff time is 0203:48 GMT (9:03:48 p.m. EST; 11:03:48 p.m. local time).

T-minus 6 minutes. The launch key has been installed inside the launch control center, beginning the Soyuz rocket's synchronized countdown sequence.

T-minus 10 minutes. The Soyuz rocket family has flown 1,780 times since the 1950s, and this is the second time the venerable launcher will fly from outside the territory of the former Soviet Union.

T-minus 16 minutes. All systems are reporting a "go" status for an on-time launch this evening.

T-minus 18 minutes and counting. With the mobile gantry now retracted, the Soyuz rocket glows bright white with frost. Its propellant tanks are full of cryogenic liquid oxygen stored at almost -300 degrees Fahrenheit.

It is 10:45 p.m. local time in French Guiana.

The fueling procedure for this evening's launch is complete and there is a full load of propellant aboard the Soyuz rocket for its three-and-half-hour mission.

Preparations are now beginning to move the mobile gantry away from the launcher.

Propellants continue to flow into the Soyuz rocket's three core stages. Storable hypergolic fuel was loaded into the rocket's Fregat upper stage before it was attached to the rocket earlier this week.

Weather at the Soyuz launch site looks acceptable for liftoff.

The European-funded, Russian-built pad is located about eight miles northwest of the Ariane 5 and Vega launch pads at the Guiana Space Center. Engineers selected the Soyuz launch site based on terrain, geology and a location away from Ariane facilities to ensure they did not interfere with each other.

It took three years and cost European governments $800 million to build the Soyuz launch facility, which is known by its French acronym ELS. Other than the 17-story mobile servicing tower, the launch pad is modeled after the Soyuz launch pad at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

The Soyuz pad includes blue and yellow umbilical arms and hold-down petals at the base of the rocket. On the back side of the pad is a deep flame trench dug out of granite bedrock. The facility also houses living quarters for Russian workers and a launch control center.

The Soyuz site lies closer to the town of Sinnamary than Kourou, which is more typically associated with the spaceport.

Fueling of the 15-story Soyuz rocket is underway. The launch team is loading more than 500,000 pounds of liquid oxygen and kerosene propellant into the rocket this morning, plus hydrogen peroxide to drive the engines' gas turbines and liquid nitrogen to keep the propellant tanks pressurized.

Russia's State Commission, which includes representatives from organizations involved in the mission, has issued the "go" for fueling of the Soyuz rocket.

Fueling of the Soyuz rocket should begin shortly and be finished by about 0018 GMT (7:18 p.m. EST), according to Arianespace.

The mobile gantry at the launch pad will begin retracting around 0103 GMT (8:03 p.m. EST). The mobile shelter is the major difference between the newly-built Soyuz launch facility in French Guiana and older pads in Kazakhstan and Russia.

The Soyuz countdown sequence begins 6 minutes, 10 seconds prior to liftoff, then the Fregat upper stage will transition to internal power five minutes before launch.

The umbilical arm servicing the upper stage and payloads will pull away at T-minus 2 minutes, 25 seconds. The Soyuz rocket is operating on internal power at T-minus 40 seconds, and the final servicing mast retracts from the rocket 20 seconds later.

The ignition sequence of the Soyuz rocket's kerosene-fueled core stage and four strap-on boosters begins 17 seconds before liftoff, and all engines should be at full thrust three seconds before launch.

A Soyuz rocket is set to launch from South America with six satellites Friday to serve European defense agencies and Chilean security authorities.

The Russian booster is hauling France's Pleiades 1 imaging platform, four French ELISA elctronic intelligence satellites and the SSOT Earth observation satellite for Chile.

Liftoff is set for 0203:48 GMT Saturday (9:03:48 p.m. EST Friday) from the Guiana Space Center, a European-run spaceport on the northeast coast of South America.

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