Russia launches Proton-M rocket with US satellite

MOSCOW - Russia launched a Proton-M carrier rocket carrying a US telecommunications satellite, the federal space agency Roscosmos said on Sunday.

The Proton rocket, carrying the Intelsat-23 telesat, blasted off from the Baikonur space center in Kazakhstan at 12:37 pm Moscow time (0837 GMT), Roscosmos said in a statement on its website.

The launch, previously scheduled for August 23, was postponed following the unsuccessful launch of August 7, during which a Proton-M failed to put two telecommunications satellites into the correct orbit.

The separation of the satellite from the Breeze-M upper stage is scheduled at 22:07 pm Moscow time (1807 GMT), a Roscosmos spokesman told local media.

The Intelsat-23 satellite was equipped with 24 C-band and 15 Ku-band transponders. With a designed life-span of 15 years, it would provide telecommunications services to customers in North America, Latin America, Western Europe and Africa.