On December 2, 2017, at 10:43 UTC the Russian "Soyuz-2.1b” rocket-carrier was launched from Plesetsk Cosmodrome, Arkhangelsk region, North Russia. The launch was performed by Russian Aerospace Defense Forces. The rocket orbited the Russian “Kosmos-2524” military surveillance satellite designed to monitor adversaries’ radio signals. Analysts believe the satellite is the third in the Russian military’s series of Lotos electronic intelligence-gathering missions, following the launch of a Lotos test satellite in November 2009 and a follow-up launch of the first Lotos-S1 payload in December 2014.