Russia successfully launched a U.S. communications satellite into space on Sunday, the Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos) said.
Russia's Proton-M carrier rocket with the Briz-M upper stage blasted off from the Kazakh Baikonur space center at around 8:29 p. m. Moscow time (1529 GMT), carrying a SkyTerra-1 mobile satellite, Roscosmos said.
Alexander Bobrenev, spokesman of Russian state Khrunichev Space Research Center, told local media that the Briz-M upper stage with the satellite will separate from the third stage of Proton-M in 581 seconds after the lift off.
After five impulses of the booster unit, the satellite will be send to 101.3 degrees west on the geostationary orbit with the orbit inclination of 51.5 degrees , Bobrenev said, adding that the whole launching period will last nine hours and 14 minutes.
The 5,390-kilogram SkyTerra 1 is produced by Boeing to provide voice and data services to cell phone users. The satellite has a 22-meter L-band reflector for mobile terminal links complemented by a 1.5 meter Ku-band antenna.
The SkyTerra 1 and its twin SkyTerra 2 will provide world's first commercial mobile satellite service using both space and terrestrial elements.
Russia's launch was conducted on a contract signed between Russian-U.S. joint venture International Launch Services (ILS) and Canadian MSV-Mobile Satellite Ventures.
Source: Xinhua
