Russian rocket launch rescheduled

A postponed Russian rocket launch has been rescheduled for Jan. 15, the Russian Space Forces said. The rocket launch was originally Dec. 8, but was postponed to fix malfunctions in the Briz-KM booster, RIA Novosti reported. "A state commission resolved at a session on Friday that the launch of the light-class Rokot rocket will be held on Jan. 15," Russian Space Forces spokesman Col. Alexei Zolotukhin said Saturday. The rocket is a modified version of the Russian RS-18 ballistic missile and uses two original lower stages of the missile along with a Breeze-KM upper-stage for commercial payloads. Russia has launched 16 Rokots since May 16, 2000. Rokot launches were suspended for about 18 months when a rocket failed to put the Geo-IK-2 military satellite into the designated orbit on Feb. 1, 2011.