A Proton rocket logged another flawless mission Friday (Eastern Time) with the launch of a Russian spacecraft.

Carrying the Express 3-A communications satellite, the Proton lifted off into the night sky over the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 8:28 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time (Saturday, 00:28 GMT).

After a 10-minute powered flight, the Proton's third stage delivered the satellite and its Block DM upper stage into an initial parking orbit.

About six hours later, the upper stage fired its engines, inserting the Express satellite into its final orbit 22,300 miles (35,885 kilometers) over the equator. The satellite was positioned at 11 degrees west latitude, where it will take over the duties of the old Gorizont 26 spacecraft.

The launch had been delayed for 24 hours due to a technical glitch during the fueling of the booster.

Express A satellites are built by the NPO PM development center, located in the Siberian town of Zheleznogorsk. They are equipped with 17 communications transponders built by Alcatel Espace of France.

The Russian Satellite Communications Company owns the Express-series spacecraft, while Moscow-based Intersputnik is the primary user of the satellite constellation.

A Proton successfully launched a Gorizont satellite on June 6 and two missions are competing for a Proton launch window on June 30. The Russian government is expected to decide at the beginning of next week whether a Geyzer spacecraft for military communications or a Sirius-1 communications satellite for a U.S.-based radio-broadcasting company will go up on that date. Both payloads and their launchers ready for lift-off, the sources said.

The Proton's overcrowded manifest precedes by only weeks what is considered by NASA to be the booster's most important mission of the year: delivery of the Zvezda service module to the International Space Station (ISS).

Failure of a Proton booster last October in which the first Express A-series spacecraft was lost, pushed the already delayed service module another six months behind schedule. The Proton booster returned to flight on February 12 and has since successfully lofted four missions into orbit.

With Express 3-A in its final orbit, Russian space officials have a reason to celebrate. The Zvezda service module will ride on a three-stage version of the Proton booster and all three stages appeared to perform flawlessly during Thursday's launch.

Key Russian space officials responsible for the ISS program and their colleagues from NASA plan to meet on Monday in Korolev, near Moscow, for a General Designer Review (GDR).