Russia to launch Intelsat-15 satellite after delay
15:58 30/11/2009 MOSCOW, November 30 (RIA Novosti) - Russia will launch a Zenit carrier rocket with a U.S. telecommunications satellite on Monday night, a spokesman for Russia's space agency Roscosmos said.
A Zenit-3SLB rocket was to be launched from the Baikonur space center in Kazakhstan on Sunday to deliver the Intelsat-15 satellite into orbit, but the launch was postponed for 24 hours for technical reasons.
"The launch has been scheduled for a reserve date - November 30 at midnight Moscow time [21:00 GMT]," a Roscosmos official told RIA Novosti.
Intelsat-15 has been developed by Orbital Sciences Corporation and is designed to replace the Intelsat-709 satellite. Intelsat-15 is equipped with 22 Ku-band transponders and will provide telecommunications services for the Middle East and Russia.
The satellite weighs 2.48 tons and has a service life of at least 15 years.
The Zenit-3SLB is a modernized three-stage version of the Zenit-3SL, used on Sea Launch's floating platform in the Pacific Ocean, developed for land-based launches.
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