Russia launches rocket to place Spanish telecoms satellite into orbit

BAIKONUR (Kazakhstan) (Sputnik) – A heavy Proton-M carrier rocket with the Breeze-M booster lifted off on Monday from the Baikonur space center in Kazakhstan to orbit the Spanish Amazonas-5 telecommunications satellite, a Sputnik correspondent reported from the launch site.

The launch, carried out by the International Launch Services (ILS), took place as scheduled at 10.32 pm Moscow time (19:32 GMT). The separation of the satellite from the Breeze booster is expected at 07.35 am Moscow time on September 12.

The Amazonas-5 has been manufactured by Space Systems Loral (USA) for Hispasat (Spain). It is designed to provide services in the field of television, corporate networks and telephone communications on the territory of South and Central America.

The ILS is a US-based subsidiary of Russia’s Khrunichev State Research and Production Space Center. The company was founded in 1995 and has launched over 90 commercial Proton rockets since then.

All launch-related risks have been insured by the SOGAZ Insurance Group, one of the largest federal insurers in Russia.