By Mark Trevelyan LONDON (Reuters) -Russian physicist Anatoly Maslov was convicted of treason and sentenced to 14 years in a penal colony on Tuesday in the latest of several cases against experts working on the science underpinning Russia's development of hypersonic missiles.

Maslov, 77, is one of a string of eminent Russian scientists who have been charged with treason in recent years. He and a number of the others had conducted theoretical work in areas relevant to the development of hypersonic missiles - cutting-edge weapons capable of carrying payloads at up to 10 times the speed of sound to punch through air-defence systems.

Anatoly Maslov is among a string of prominent Russian scientists to have been charged with treason in recent years.

A Russian-drafted United Nations Security Council resolution that called on all countries to prevent "for all time" the placement, threat or use of any weapons in outer space failed on Monday with the 15-member body split over the move.

The United States said Monday that Russia last week launched a satellite that could be part of weaponizing space, a possible future global trend that members of the United Nations Security Council condemned even as they failed to pass a measure against it.

The U.S. has accused Russia of launching a satellite aimed at weaponizing space in a move criticized by the UN Security Council, which failed to pass a resolution against it.