14 DAY TRIAL // On December 26, at 4:51 pm EST (2151 GMT), a Russian Proton rocket roared to the skies from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, carrying Eutelsat Communications' KA-SAT satellite to orbit.
This is the eight successful commercial mission that International Launch Services (ILS) managed for 2010. The company is a world leader in commercial space launch services for the space industry.
France-based Eutelsat contracted the organization to secure a room on a ILS-built Proton Breeze M delivery system a couple of years ago. The collaboration finally came to an end at 3:51 am Baikonur time on Sunday morning.
The KA-SAT spacecraft was successfully deployed into its geostationary transfer orbit (GTO) some 9 hours and 12 minutes after take-off, and is currently awaiting instructions to stabilize its orbit.
Russian aerospace industry behemoth Khrunichev Space Center constructed the Proton rocket used for this mission, under an agreement with ILS. The Services have carried out some 64 launches thus far, and this particular one was the 12th flown with a Proton this year.
This rocket has an impressive history, given that it was introduced back in 1965. Over the years, it has suffered some modifications, but the overall design remained slightly the same. Thus far, more than 363 Proton flights were carried out.
Its payload for this flight was the 6,150-kilogram KA-SAT, which was constructed by Astrium, on the Eurostar E3000 satellite platform. The spacecraft has a total capacity of 70 Gbps, and is expected to provide Internet services across Europe and the Mediterranean Basin.
“We worked very closely with Eutelsat and Astrium to ensure the successful launch of the KA-SAT satellite on ILS Proton,” explains the president of ILS, Frank McKenna.
“We are honored to play an important role in the deployment of innovative programs and technologies such as KA-SAT, the first European satellite that will operate exclusively in high capacity Ka-band frequencies,” he adds.
“We thank Eutelsat for relying on ILS Proton once again to deliver their spacecraft securely into orbit,” the official goes on to say, quoted by SpaceRef.
“We are pleased to continue our long term relationship with ILS with the launch of KA-SAT on the powerful Proton Breeze M rocket,” explains Eutelsat's CEO, Michel de Rosen.
“The launch of this High Throughput Satellite marks the opening of a new era for satellite-delivered broadband and data services across Europe and the Mediterranean Basin,” adds.
“It is also new evidence of Eutelsat's commitment to innovation that broadens the scope of satellite-based services in a rapidly-expanding digital economy. Our sincere thanks and appreciation go out to the entire team of ILS, Khrunichev and Astrium, for their tireless work on this mission,” de Rosen concludes.