MOSCOW, April 17 (Xinhua) -- Russia on Tuesday launched a Dneprcarrier rocket from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, putting 14 foreign satellites into orbit, the Federal Space Agency said.

The rocket blasted off at 10:46 a.m. Moscow time (0646 GMT). Foreign satellites aboard include those from Egypt, Saudi Arabia and some micro satellites.

"The separation of all foreign spacecraft from the carrier rocket occurred at 11:02 Moscow time (0702 GMT) ... Control over all satellites has been passed to the customers," the RIA Novosti news agency quoted a space agency spokesman as saying.

The launch is the first after the crash of a Dnepr rocket, the civil version of an inter-continental ballistic missile, on July 26, 2006. All 18 Russian and foreign satellites on board, including Belarus' first satellite BelKa, were destroyed in the crash.