Russia will launch two international satellites as well as a freighter to the International Space Station (ISS) next month from the Baikonur space center in Kazakhstan, the Federal Space Agency said Monday.

A Roscosmos spokesman said Intelsat 16, CryoSat 2, and Progress M04M would be launched with three different carrier rockets.

The Progress M04M is due for liftoff with a Soyuz-U vehicle on February 3 at 6:45 a.m. Moscow time and is to dock with the ISS on February 5 at 7:32 a.m.

The Intelsat 16 communication satellite, built by Orbital Sciences Corporation and owned by Intelsat, the world's largest commercial satellite communications services provider, will be orbited with a Proton-M carrier on February 12 at 3:39 a.m.

The European Space Agency's CryoSat-2 Earth Explorer satellite will be launched with an RS-20 rocket on February 25.

According to the ESA, the CryoSat mission is dedicated to "precise monitoring of the changes in the thickness of marine ice floating in the polar oceans and variations in the thickness of the vast ice sheets that overlay Greenland and Antarctica."

MOSCOW, January 18 (RIA Novosti)