At 12:31 UTC on the 1st February, the Proton-M rocket lifted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, carrying the Inmarsat-5 F-2 satellite to orbit.
The satellite will be placed in a geo-synchronous elliptical orbit in the next few weeks, with its solar arrays and reflectors deployed by the end of February. It is hoped that by the end of March, the satellite will have transitioned to a geostationary orbit by the electrical orbit-raising phase.
Inmarsat-5 F-2 is a communications satellite, and is the second satellite of the Inmarsat Global Xpress system. With a mass of 6070 kg, the satellite has 89 ka-band transponders and a lifetime of 15 years. Once complete, the Global Xpress system will be the first globally available high-speed broadband network. The final satellite in the 3-satellite system will be launched in the second half of 2015.
The first Proton rocket was launched in 1965, and a staggering 401 launches have happened since then. The presence the Proton rocket has had in the launch industry since the 60s makes it one of the most renowned rockets in the world.
The satellite will be placed in a geo-synchronous elliptical orbit in the next few weeks, with its solar arrays and reflectors deployed by the end of February. It is hoped that by the end of March, the satellite will have transitioned to a geostationary orbit by the electrical orbit-raising phase.
Inmarsat-5 F-2 is a communications satellite, and is the second satellite of the Inmarsat Global Xpress system. With a mass of 6070 kg, the satellite has 89 ka-band transponders and a lifetime of 15 years. Once complete, the Global Xpress system will be the first globally available high-speed broadband network. The final satellite in the 3-satellite system will be launched in the second half of 2015.
The first Proton rocket was launched in 1965, and a staggering 401 launches have happened since then. The presence the Proton rocket has had in the launch industry since the 60s makes it one of the most renowned rockets in the world.