Russian Launch Vehicle Lifts Off With Norwegian Telecom Satellite on Board

Text of report in English by corporate-owned Russian military news agency Interfax-AVN website

A Proton-M rocket was launched from Kazakhstan’s Baykonur space centre at 1434 Moscow time [1134 gmt] on Monday [11 February], the Space Troops have told Interfax-AVN.

“The Proton-M rocket with the Briz-M upper stage is to place the Norwegian telecom satellite Thor-2R into orbit,” Space Troops spokesman Col Aleksey Zolotukhin told Interfax.

Initially, the launch was planned for Sunday, but technical problems delayed it for a day.

The satellite will separate from the upper stage and reach the designated orbit in approximately nine hours, he said. The Space Troops are controlling the flight from land-based automatic stations.

The three stages of the Proton-M rocket will bring the Briz-M and the Thor-2R into an orbit of about 173 km. The rocket engines will burn for 585 seconds. After that the Briz-M will put the satellite into a geostationary orbit with perigee at 496 km and apogee at 36,821 km.

Originally published by Interfax-AVN military news agency website, Moscow, in English 1215 11 Feb 08.

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