MOSCOW, April 15 (RIA Novosti) – Russia’s Proton-M carrier rocket carrying a Canadian telecommunications satellite Anik-G1 blasted off on Monday from the Baikonur space center in Kazakhstan, the Russian Federal Space Agency Roscosmos reported.
“The Proton-M carrier rocket lifted off as scheduled – at 10.36 pm Moscow time [18:36 GMT],” Roscosmos said. “The separation of the Anik-G1 satellite from the Briz-M booster is expected at 07.49 am Moscow time [03:49 GMT] on Tuesday.”
Anik-G1 is a commercial communications satellite built by Space Systems/Loral for Canadian satellite operator Telesat.
The satellite carries 24 C-band transponders, 28 Ku-band transponders and 3 X-band transponders.
It will double C- and Ku-band capacity over South America, provide additional DTH services in extended Ku-band and provide military X-band coverage of the Americas and substantial portions of the Pacific Ocean, according to a mission statement by launch operator International Launch Services Inc. (ILS), which is a subsidiary of Russia’s Khrunichev State Research and Production Space Center.
The satellite has a service life of 15 years.