spacetoday.net: Land Launch places Malaysian satellite in orbit

Posted: Mon, Jun 22, 2009, 6:45 AM ET (1045 GMT)
Land Launch successfully launched a communications satellite for a Malaysian company early Monday. A Zenit-3SLB lifted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 5:50 pm EDT Sunday (2150 GMT Sunday, 3:50 am local time Monday) and placed the MEASAT-3a into a geosynchronous transfer orbit about six hours later. The spacecraft, formerly known as MEASAT-1R, is an Orbital Sciences Corporation Star-2 model with 12 Ku-band and 12 C-band transponders and weighed 2,366 kilograms at launch. The satellite's owner, Malaysian satellite operator MEASAT, will use the satellite at 91.5 degrees east in GEO, providing communications services throughout south and east Asia. The satellite had been scheduled for launch last fall, but was damaged in pre-launch preparations when a crane struck the satellite; the spacecraft had to be shipped back to the US for repairs.