Russia aborts converted rocket launch

MOSCOW (Reuters) -- A converted Russian SS-18 rocket booster carrying commercial satellites failed to launch just seconds before its scheduled blast off from Kazakhstan's Baikonur cosmodrome on Friday, the Russian Space Agency said.

A spokesman said a programming failure was the likely cause of the automatic shutdown just prior to launch, which was to have put five foreign commercial satellites into orbit.

The launch has been rescheduled for Saturday, officials said.

Soviet-era SS-18 short-range ballistic rockets -- nicknamed "Satan" in the West because of their fearsome power -- are being converted under a joint Russian-Ukrainian space venture.

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