Russia launched a carrier rocket on Monday to send an Israeli communications satellite into space, news agencies reported.
The Russian booster Zenit-3SLB with the upper-stage rocket DM-SLB, which lifted off from the Baikonur spaceport in Kazakhstanat 9 a.m. Moscow time (0500 GMT), has placed the Israeli communications satellite Amos-3 in the terrestrial orbit, Interfaxquoted Lt. Col. Alexei Zolotukhin, top spokesman for the Russian Space Forces, as saying.
In several hours the Israeli satellite, which weighs 1,300 kilos and has a service life of about 18 years, will be placed on a geostationary orbit at an altitude of 36,000 km, the spokesman said.
The rocket had been scheduled to orbit the Israeli satellite on pril 24, but was postponed as the ground equipment was not ready for the launch.
The satellite, worth some 170 million U.S. dollars, will join the AMOS-2 satellite and replace AMOS-1 to increase capacity, expand coverage and enhance direct cross-Atlantic links connecting the Middle East to Europe and the U.S. East Coast, RIA Novosti reported, quoting the fleet's operator, the Space Communications Ltd.
It was the first launch of the three-stage Zenit from a ground cosmodrome. Earlier similar space rockets were fired only in the framework of the Sea Launch program from a floating platform in the Pacific.
Source:Xinhua
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