MOSCOW, April 28 (RIA Novosti) – A Russian Proton-M carrier rocket has successfully placed Kazakhstan’s KazSat-3 telecommunications satellite and Russia’s Luch-5V relay satellite into Earth orbit, the Russian space agency Roscosmos said Monday.
“The Briz-M booster with two satellites has separated from the Proton-M carrier rocket. The Kazakh satellite, KazSat-3, is due to reach its final orbit at 5:17 p.m. Moscow time (01:17 GMT) and the Russian Luch relay satellite will separate from the booster at 5:57 p.m. Moscow time (01:57 GMT),” the agency said.
The Luch-5V will be the third satellite in Russia’s Luch Satellite Data Relay Network, used to transmit live TV images and communications from the International Space Station and orbital spacecraft to Earth, in a manner similar to that of the US Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System.
The KazSat-3 satellite will provide telecommunications, TV, broadband Internet and other services in Kazakhstan and neighboring countries. It was manufactured as part a project to create a national space telecoms network.
