Russia launched a Proton-M carrier
rocket carrying a U.S. telecommunications satellite, the federal
space agency Roscosmos said on Sunday.
The Proton rocket, carrying the Intelsat-23 telesat, blasted off
from the Baikonur space center in Kazakhstan at 12:37 p.m. Moscow
time (0837 GMT), Roscosmos said in a statement on its website.
The launch, previously scheduled for August 23, was postponed
following the unsuccessful launch of August 7, during which a Proton-
M failed to put two telecommunications satellites into the correct
orbit.
The separation of the satellite from the Breeze-M upper stage is
scheduled at 22:07 p.m. Moscow time (1807 GMT), a Roscosmos
spokesman told local media.
The Intelsat-23 satellite was equipped with 24 C-band and 15 Ku-
band transponders. With a designed life-span of 15 years, it would
provide telecommunications services to customers in North America,
Latin America, Western Europe and Africa.
