spacetoday.net: Proton launches satellite radio spacecraft

Posted: Wed, Jul 1, 2009, 4:24 AM ET (0824 GMT)
Proton-M launch of Sirius FM-5 (ILS)

A Proton rocket launched early Wednesday a new spacecraft for US satellite radio company Sirius XM. The Proton-M lifted off at 3:10 pm EDT Tuesday (1910 GMT Tuesday, 1:10 am local time Wednesday) from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Its payload, the Sirius FM-5 satellite, separated from the Breeze M upper stage a little over nine hours after launch. The spacecraft will be located in GEO at 96 degrees west, the first satellite of the former Sirius Satellite Radio to be located in GEO; previous Sirius satellites had been launched into elliptical orbits. The satellite was built by Space Systems/Loral and weighed 5,820 kilograms at launch.