Posted: Tue, Mar 16, 2004, 7:51 AM ET (1251 GMT)
A Proton M booster launched a communications satellite for Eutelsat early Tuesday. The Proton M lifted off from Baikonur on schedule at 6:06 pm EST Monday (2306 GMT Monday, 4:06 am local time Tuesday). The booster's payload, the Eutelsat W3A satellite, separated from the booster after entering a geosynchronous transfer orbit nine hours later. The satellite is an Astrium Eurostar E3000 model, the first launch of this new satellite model. The 4,250-kilogram satellite carried 58 Ka- and Ku-band transponders to provide communications services for Europe, Africa, and the Middle East from a slot at 7 degrees east. The launch is the first commercial Proton launch of 2004; the next, of the Intelsat 10-02 satellite, is scheduled for June.
