MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Russia's Express-AM8 communications satellite, which lifted off on Monday from the Baikonur space center in Kazakhstan on a Proton-M space rocket, separated from the DM-03 booster and was put into orbit.
"Express-AM8 was delivered into the proper orbit, and later will be gradually transferred to the calculated point of standing on the geostationary," a spokesman for the Russian Federal Space Agency Roscosmos told RIA Novosti.
Monday's launch was the second successful launch of a Proton rocket since May accident, which resulted in a loss of a Mexican satellite.
The Proton-M is the largest carrier rocket in Russia's fleet of space launch vehicles. The rocket has lifted dozens of Russian-made and foreign satellites since it was first launched in 2001.
Express-AM8 has an operational life-time of 15 years. The satellite's weight is 2,100 kilograms (4,629 pounds), with a payload of 661 kilograms (1,457 pounds).
The satellite is designed to provide television and radio broadcasting, data transmission, multimedia services, presidential and governmental communications, telephony, mobile communication in the territories of Western and Central Russia, Europe, Africa, the Middle East, as well as South and North America.
