{"id":16465,"date":"2015-03-19T17:07:02","date_gmt":"2015-03-19T09:07:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/proton-rocket-launches-with-russian-telecom-satellite\/"},"modified":"2015-03-19T17:07:02","modified_gmt":"2015-03-19T09:07:02","slug":"proton-rocket-launches-with-russian-telecom-satellite","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/proton-rocket-launches-with-russian-telecom-satellite\/","title":{"rendered":"Proton rocket launches with Russian telecom satellite"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Pusk\"
The Proton rocket with Express AM7 lifted off at 2205 GMT (6:05 p.m. EDT) Wednesday, or 4:05 a.m. local time Thursday at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Credit: Roscosmos<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A Proton rocket and Breeze M upper stage deployed a Russian communications satellite in orbit Thursday after liftoff from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.<\/p>\n

The satellite\u2019s separation from the Proton\/Breeze M launcher punctuated a successful nine-hour sequence of rocket burns and started a planned 15-year mission to beam television programming, broadband connectivity, and other services to users across Europe, Russia, Africa and India.<\/p>\n

The 191-foot-tall rocket took off from Central Asia spaceport at 2205 GMT (6:05 p.m. EDT) Wednesday, or 4:05 a.m. local time Thursday, carrying the Express AM7 telecom spacecraft.<\/p>\n

Firing six RD-276 first stage main engines, the Proton soared into a clear predawn sky, passed the speed of sound, and flew downrange over the sparsely populated steppes of Kazakhstan.<\/p>\n

The rocket\u2019s first and second stages jettisoned a few minutes after liftoff, then the launcher\u2019s third stage fired more than four minutes to complete the Proton\u2019s role in the launch.<\/p>\n

The mission required five burns by the Breeze M upper stage built by Khrunichev State Research and Production Space Center, the same contractor that manufactures the Proton rocket.<\/p>\n

The maneuvers raised the satellite\u2019s altitude and reduced its orbital inclination \u2014 moving it closer to a final parking slot in geostationary orbit over the equator.<\/p>\n

The Breeze M stage deployed the 5,720-kilogram (12,610-pound) Express AM7 spacecraft at 0718 GMT (3:18 a.m. EDT) Thursday, according to a statement released by Roscosmos, the Russian Federal Space Agency.<\/p>\n

The rocket aimed to put the satellite in a temporary transfer orbit with an apogee, or high point, of 35,786 kilometers (22,236 miles), a perigee, or low point, of 5,410 kilometers (3,361 miles), and an inclination of 20 degrees to the equator.<\/p>\n

Officials declared the mission a success in post-launch statements, wrapping up the 403rd flight of a Proton rocket since 1965, and the expendable launcher\u2019s second mission of the year.<\/p>\n

\"Artist's
Artist\u2019s concept of the Express AM7 satellite. Credit: Airbus Defense and Space<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Built in Europe by Airbus Defense and Space, the Express AM7 satellite will fire its liquid-fueled propulsion system to reach a circular orbit 22,300 miles over the equator in the next few weeks.<\/p>\n

The craft is based on the Airbus Eurostar E3000 satellite platform.<\/p>\n

Express AM7\u2019s operating post in geostationary orbit will be at 40 degrees east longitude, where the satellite\u2019s velocity will match the speed of Earth\u2019s rotation. It will hover above a fixed spot on the equator over Kenya, giving the spacecraft\u2019s 80 C-band, Ku-band and L-band transponders coverage from the United Kingdom, to South Africa, to India.<\/p>\n

The satellite can provide television and radio broadcasts, broadband access, multimedia, data, telephony and mobile communications services, according to the Russian Satellite Communications Co., Russia\u2019s state-owned civilian telecom satellite operator and Express AM7\u2019s owner.<\/p>\n

The next Proton launch is scheduled for April 6 with the Express AM8 satellite, another communications station owned by RSCC.<\/p>\n

Follow Stephen Clark on Twitter: @StephenClark1.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Proton rocket with Express AM7 lifted off at 2205 GMT (6:05 p.m. EDT) Wednesday, or 4:05 a.m. local time Thursday at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Credit: Roscosmos A Proton rocket and Breeze M upper stage deployed a Russian communications satellite in orbit Thursday after liftoff from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. The satellite\u2019s […]<\/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":[1601,1968,4115,1969,2110,3839],"class_list":["post-16465","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-baikonur-cosmodrome","tag-breeze-m","tag-express-am7","tag-khrunichev","tag-proton","tag-rscc"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16465"}],"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=16465"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16465\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16465"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16465"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16465"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}