A Russian rocket lit up the night sky over Baikonur Cosmodrome Thursday (May 30) to launch a powerful new communications satellite into orbit.
The heavy-lift Proton-M rocket lifted off at 1:42 p.m. EDT (1742 GMT) carrying the Yamal-601 communications satellite for Russia's JSC Gazprom Space Systems. It was 10:42 p.m. local time at the launch site in Kazakhstan.
Yamal-601 is Russia's most powerful communications satellite yet, according to the country's space agency Roscosmos. The satellite was built by the French aerospace company Thales Alenia Space and is equipped with 18 C-band transponders, 19 Ku-band transponders and 26 Ka-band transponders to provide "fixed communications, broadcast and internet access services" to customers, Thales officials have said.
Related: Watch Lightning Strike a Soyuz Rocket Launch!
The satellite weighs about 5 metric tons and is designed to last for 15 years. It will replace the current Yamal-202 communications satellite, also owned and operated by Gazprom, in an orbit at 49-degrees east, which allows coverage of Europe, the Middle East, North Africa, south and southeast Asia, Thales officials added.
The launch of Yamal-601 marked the first launch of a Proton rocket in 2019, which has already seen a series of Soyuz launches to launch satellites and space station crews into orbit.
The booster launched into orbit with a Breeze-M upper stage that was expected to carry Yamal-601 into its final orbit about 9 hours after liftoff, according to Roscosmos. The Breeze-M upper stage will perform five separate maneuvers to reach its deployment position, they added.
- Rocket Launches: The Latest Videos, Photos and Missions
- Russia's Space Centers and Launch Sites in Pictures
- The Top 10 Russian and Soviet Space Missions
Email Tariq Malik at tmalik@space.com or follow him @tariqjmalik. Follow us @Spacedotcom and Facebook.
Join our Space Forums to keep talking space on the latest missions, night sky and more! And if you have a news tip, correction or comment, let us know at: community@space.com.
