Proton-M carrier rocket with Spanish satellite launched from Baikonur Space Center

A Proton-M heavy-lift carrier rocket with a Spanish Amazonas-5 satellite has been launched from Kazakhstan’s Baikonur Space Center, a TASS correspondent reported from the space pad on Monday.


"The Proton-M space rocket with a Briz-M upper stage was launched at 22:23 Moscow time from Baikonur’s launching pad 29 of platform 200," a spokesman for Russia’s state space corporation Roscosmos said.

The Spanish satellite will separate from the Briz-M upper stage in nine hours and 12 minutes after the launch to reach the designated orbit at 07:35 Moscow time on September 12.

This was Proton-M’s thirds launch since the beginning of the year and the second commercial launch. The first launch in 2017 took place on June 8 when it carried a US communications satellite EchoStar 21. The satellite was to be put into orbit back in 2016 but the launch was delayed several times to be ultimately cancelled due to a defect in Proton’s second and upper stage engines. On August 17, a heavy-lift rocket of this type put into orbit a military satellite.
[tass.com]
 12/9/17