A Russian Proton-M rocket early on Tuesday sent a U.S. telecommunications satellite, the Inmarsat-4 F3, into Earth orbit, a spokesman for a Moscow-based producer of space-launch systems said.
The rocket was launched from the Baikonur space center in Kazakhstan at 2:43 a.m. Moscow time (2243 GMT), said Alexander Bobrenyov, spokesman for the Khrunichev state research and production space center.
According to the federal space agency Roskosmos, "within eight hours five mid-course burns will bring the orbital unit from the suborbital trajectory to a final transfer orbit, where the satellite will separate," the Itar-Tass news agency reported.
The U.S. satellite will reach an altitude of about 36,000 kilometers following five switches of the Briz-M engine, he said.
Inmarsat-4 satellites are among the largest and most sophisticated commercial communication satellites in the world, and are capable of delivering advanced voice and broadband data communications to mobile users. |
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