{"id":16325,"date":"2015-05-15T23:33:52","date_gmt":"2015-05-15T15:33:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/proton-rocket-ready-to-loft-mexican-telecom-satellite\/"},"modified":"2015-05-15T23:33:52","modified_gmt":"2015-05-15T15:33:52","slug":"proton-rocket-ready-to-loft-mexican-telecom-satellite","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/proton-rocket-ready-to-loft-mexican-telecom-satellite\/","title":{"rendered":"Proton rocket ready to loft Mexican telecom satellite"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_6404\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-6404\" style=\"width: 620px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-6404\" src=\"http:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/3A3U2487s.jpg\" alt=\"A Russian Proton rocket is ready for launch at 0547 GMT (1:47 a.m. EDT) Saturday. Credit: Khrunichev\" width=\"620\" height=\"413\" srcset=\"https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/3A3U2487s.jpg 600w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/3A3U2487s-300x200.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 620px) 100vw, 620px\"><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-6404\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">A Russian Proton rocket is ready for launch at 0547 GMT (1:47 a.m. EDT) Saturday. Credit: Khrunichev<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>A Boeing-built communications satellite for the Mexican government is set for liftoff Saturday from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan aboard a Russian Proton rocket.<\/p>\n<p>The Mexsat 1 satellite is cocooned inside the nose fairing of the 191-foot-tall Proton rocket, which is set for liftoff at 0547 GMT (1:47 a.m. EDT; 11:47 a.m. local time) from the historic Baikonur launch base.<\/p>\n<p>The rocket was scheduled to take off April 29, but officials delayed the mission to double-check the Mexsat 1 satellite after engineers discovered a problem with a similar spacecraft inside Boeing\u2019s factory in El Segundo, California.<\/p>\n<p>Russian rocket technicians removed the Proton from its launch pad during the grounding, then returned the booster to the pad Thursday for final flight preparations.<\/p>\n<p>The Proton\u2019s six first stage RD-276 engines will power the 777-ton rocket off the launch pad and guide the launcher northeast from Baikonur, throttling up to a maximum power level of 2.5 million pounds of thrust during a two-minute burn.<\/p>\n<p>The rocket\u2019s second and third stage engines will take turns to accelerate the Mexsat 1 and its Breeze M upper stage to a speed of nearly 5 miles per second within the first 10 minutes of the flight.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_6402\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-6402\" style=\"width: 620px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-6402\" src=\"http:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/3A3U2350s.jpg\" alt=\"The Proton rocket rolls out to its launch pad at the Baikonur Cosmodrome ahead of Saturday's liftoff. Credit: Khrunichev\" width=\"620\" height=\"413\" srcset=\"https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/3A3U2350s.jpg 600w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/3A3U2350s-300x200.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 620px) 100vw, 620px\"><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-6402\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Proton rocket rolls out to its launch pad at the Baikonur Cosmodrome ahead of Saturday\u2019s liftoff. Credit: Khrunichev<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The Breeze M\u2019s main engine will take over for a series of five firings to steer Mexsat 1 into geostationary transfer orbit with a high point of 22,236 miles (35,786 kilometers), a low point of 5,583 miles (8,985 kilometers) and an inclination of 20.1 degrees.<\/p>\n<p>Deployment of the 11,739-pound (5,325-kilogram) payload is set for 1500 GMT (11 a.m. EDT) Saturday.<\/p>\n<p>Virginia-based International Launch Services is managing the commercial launch. ILS is owned by Khrunichev State Research and Production Space Center, the prime contractor for the Proton rocket and Breeze M upper stage.<\/p>\n<p>Based on Boeing\u2019s 702HP satellite design, Mexsat 1 is designed to operate for 15 years after using its on-board liquid propulsion system to reach a circular geostationary orbit 22,300 miles over the equator.<\/p>\n<p>Mexsat 1\u2019s final operating post will be at 113 degrees west longitude.<\/p>\n<p>Owned by Mexico\u2019s Ministry of Communications and Transportation, the satellite will extend a 72-foot L-band antenna made by Harris Corp., enabling Mexican security authorities with handheld terminals to make calls from land, sea and air.<\/p>\n<p>Mexican officials also call the satellite Centenario in recognition of the 100th anniversary of Mexican Revolution.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"678\" height=\"381\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/HvOsn1da1KA?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Centenario is one of three satellites Mexico ordered from Boeing in 2010 in a $1 billion deal that included construction of the spacecraft, two tracking and control stations in Mexico, and design of terminals for users to connect with the satellites.<\/p>\n<p>Orbital ATK supplied one satellite \u2014 Bicentenario \u2014 under a subcontract to Boeing for launch aboard an Ariane 5 rocket in 2012.<\/p>\n<p>Another Boeing-made spacecraft named Morelos 3 is scheduled for launch on an Atlas 5 rocket in the fourth quarter of this year.<\/p>\n<p><b><i>Email the author.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n<p><em><strong>Follow Stephen Clark on Twitter: @StephenClark1.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A Russian Proton rocket is ready for launch at 0547 GMT (1:47 a.m. EDT) Saturday. Credit: Khrunichev A Boeing-built communications satellite for the Mexican government is set for liftoff Saturday from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan aboard a Russian Proton rocket. The Mexsat 1 satellite is cocooned inside the nose fairing of the 191-foot-tall Proton [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1601,670,1968,4044,2646,1969,1867,3908],"class_list":["post-16325","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-baikonur-cosmodrome","tag-boeing","tag-breeze-m","tag-centenario","tag-international-launch-services","tag-khrunichev","tag-mexico","tag-mexsat"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16325"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16325"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16325\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16325"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16325"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16325"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}