The Kingdom has successfully launched six satellites into orbit, the King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology (KACST) announced. The satellites were launched from the Baikonur Base in Kazakhstan on a Russian-Ukrainian missile.

Prince Dr. Turki bin Saud Al-Saud, Vice President of KACST, said that a Saudi team at the Space Research Institute performed all the preparation and testing on the satellites. The launch had been originally scheduled for March 27, 2007 but was postponed for technical reasons.

This latest launch brings the total number of Saudi satellites in orbit to 12. Most are used for communications.

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