By IANS/RIA Novosti,
Moscow : Russia’s Proton-M carrier rocket with US telecom satellite Intelsat-23 blasted off Sunday from the Baikonur space centre in Kazakhstan.
The Proton-M was launched at 0827 GMT, said a spokesman from Russian federal space agency Roscosmos.
The launch was initially scheduled for Aug 23, but was postponed because of a failed satellite launch earlier that month, when two telecom satellites were lost due to a failure in the Russian Proton-M rocket’s upper stage.
The Intelsat-23 has been built by Orbital Sciences Corporation for Intelsat Ltd., which operates the world’s most extensive satellite network, comprising over 50 satellites.
The satellite is equipped with 24 C-band and 15 Ku-band transponders and will provide telecom services to customers in North and Latin America, Western Europe, Africa and some islands in the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans.