The Kosmos-3M rocket carrying the satellites -- two Russian, and one each from Britain, South Korea, Nigeria and Turkey -- lifted off at 10:12 amand went into orbit just over an hour later, news agencies reported.

All six satellites were outside radio visibility from Russia at the time they went into orbit.

The British satellite UK-DMC, NigeriaSat-1 of Nigeria and BilSat-1 of Turkey are to join the international system known as the Disaster Monitoring Constellation incorporating Britain, Algeria, Turkey, Nigeria, China, and Thailand.

For Nigeria, the launch represented the country's entry into the space age, making it the third African country to have a space presence after South Africa and Algeria.

The event has been keenly anticipated by officials and the media in Lagos.

The South-Korean satellite KAISTSat-4 is equipped with a telescope for watching agglomerations of space gas.

Turkey has seen three previous satellite launches, though the satellites were built by France's Aerospatiale and launched by the European Ariane rocket.

After launch, the two Russian satellites were brought under the operational control of Russia's Space Forces, the space wing of the Russian armed forces.

The Russian satellites, Mozhaets-4 and Larets, are designed for research experiments and training of cadets at the Mozhaiski Aerospace Academy in Saint Petersburg and for attuning ground radars respectively.

The Kosmos-3M rocket had originally been due to lift off on Friday but was delayed for technical reasons.

SPACE.WIRE