A Russian Proton-M carrier rocket successfully put the Arabsat-5 telecommunications satellite into orbit on Friday, a spokesman for the Federal Space Agency said.
"The foreign satellite vehicle separated from the Breeze-M upper stage and was transferred to the management of the party that ordered the launch," the Roscosmos spokesman said.
The Proton-M rocket blasted off from the Baikonur Space Center in Kazakhstan at 2.00 a.m. Moscow time on Friday. The satellite was scheduled to separate approximately 9 hours and 13 minutes after liftoff.
The launch was carried out under a contract between International Launch Services (ILS) and the Arabsat satellite operator. ILS, owned by the Khrunichev Center, RSC Energia and U.S. firm Space Transport Inc., provides spacecraft launch services for Proton-M heavy carrier rockets.
This was the sixth Proton launch this year and the 357th since the rocket entered service. It was also fourth ILS Proton launch this year and the 60th since ILS began commercial launches in 1996.
The Arabsat-5 (commercial name BADR-5) will be co-located with the BADR-4 and BADR-6 direct-to-home satellites, launched in 2006 and 2008, respectively.
It is built on a Eurostar E3000 platform, weighting 5,420 kg (11,949 lbs), and is equipped with 46 Ku-band transponders and 4 Ka-band transponders, with an anticipated life span of 15 years. The satellite was built by France's Thales Alenia Space on behalf of EADS Astrium of Paris, France.
It the third time ILS has launched an Arabsat satellite and the 12th Eurostar satellite put into orbit on an ILS Proton.
MOSCOW, June 4 (RIA Novosti)
