MOSCOW, July 22 (Xinhua) -- A Russian carrier rocket sent a German reconnaissance satellite into orbit on Tuesday, a Space Forces spokesman said.

"A Kosmos 3M carrier rocket, launched at 6:40 a.m. Moscow time (0240 GMT) from the Plesetsk space center in northern Russia, has successfully orbited a German SAR-Lupe satellite," Lt. Col. AlexeiZolotukhin was quoted by the RIA Novosti news agency as saying.

Control over the satellite has been passed to the customer, he added.

The German satellite, the fifth of its kind, is designed to provide high-resolution radar images to NATO military commanders in Europe. It will offer spatial resolution of less than one meter and allow imaging at night and through clouds.

Russia's Space Forces had previously conducted four SAR-Lupe launches since 2006, under an agreement signed with German aeronautics company OHB-System in 2003.

Russia has fulfilled the contract on putting into orbit five satellites of the radar reconnaissance system SAR-Lupe, Zolotukhintold reporters.

Tuesday's launch is the fourth this year by the Space Forces. Three of them were made for foreign customers and one for Russia's Defense Ministry.

A Kosmos-3M carrier put a German satellite of the SAR-Lupe series into space in March from the Plesetsk cosmodrome. A rocket blasted off from the same spaceport in May to place into orbit theYubileyny scientific micro-satellite.

Russia launched a Kosmos-3M rocket from the southern Kapustin Yar military testing site on June 19 to send six U.S. commercial satellites into space.