It was a member of the Zenit family of rockets, which were designed by Yuzhnoye Design Bureau of Ukraine.

Launches of Zenit-3SLBF rockets were conducted from Baikonur Cosmodrome Site 45/1.

The rocket consisted of a Zenit-2SB (Zenit-2M) core vehicle, with a Fregat-SB upper stage, developed by NPO Lavochkin of Russia, in place of the Block-DM used on the Zenit-3SL and 3SLB.

The payload was an Elektro-L new generation weather satellite.

[3] A Zenit-3F was also used to successfully launch the Spektr-R radio astronomy satellite on 18 July 2011.