Posted: Sat, Sep 19, 2009, 11:15 AM ET (1515 GMT)
A Proton rocket successfully launched a new communications satellite for Canadian operator Telesat early Friday. The Proton M lifted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome at 3:19 pm EDT Thursday (1919 GMT Thursday, 1:19 am Friday local time) and released the Nimiq 5 satellite into geosynchronous transfer orbit 9 hours and 15 minutes later. The satellite is a Space Systems/Loral 1300-series spacecraft, weighing 4,745 kilograms. It will be located at 72.7 degrees west longitude in GEO, providing direct-to-home television services to North America using 32 Ku-band transponders. The launch was the seventh Proton mission of 2009, five of them being commercial missions for International Launch Services. The launch also took place just hours after another mission from Baikonur, the launch of a Russian weather satellite on a Soyuz.
