Proton Breeze M launch successful
Tuesday, 19 Aug 2008 11:15
Russian Proton Breeze M rocket successfully launches commercial satellite
A Russian Proton Breeze M rocket has today launched one of the biggest satellites ever built.
The Inmarsat-4 (I4-F3) was successfully released by the rocket at around 08:45 BST this morning.
The mission was the Proton's first since a technical failure in March. It left the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 23:43 BST on Monday.
The I4-F3 satellite is operated by the UK-based Inmarsat and will help with its mobile internet and phone services.
The satellites themselves are huge, measuring seven metres in height and including a nine metre-wide antenna reflector which unfurls when in space.
"Each is almost the size of a double-decker bus, weighs six tonnes, and has a solar wingspan the length of a football pitch," said Andrew Sukawaty, chairman of Inmarsat.
"Each I4 is 60 times more powerful and has 16 times the capacity of an Inmarsat-3 satellite."
The Proton rocket suffered a technical failure earlier this year when it left a US satellite stranded uselessly below its operational orbit.