International Launch Services (ILS), a leading launch services provider for the global commercial satellite industry, successfully carried the SES-5 satellite into geostationary transfer orbit today on an ILS Proton for SES of Luxembourg. This was the 21th SES satellite launched on ILS Proton, the 23rd launch of a Space Systems/Loral satellite, and the 74th ILS Proton launch overall. Read more
Russia's Proton-M launch vehicle, which successfully took off from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on Monday evening, has placed the Sirius-5 communications satellite into orbit, Russian Khrunichev Space Centre spokesman Alexander Bobrenev told Interfax-AVN. Read more
An ILS Proton M-Briz M rocket is scheduled to launch the Astra 4-B (SES-5) satellite from the Baikonur Cosmodrome at 18:25 UT, 9th July, 2012.
SES' high-powered Ku-band beams will bring incremental capacity over Africa, and the Nordic and Baltic countries to support DTH services. Its comprehensive C-band beams cover Africa, the Middle East and Europe to enable services such as GSM backhaul, VSAT applications, maritime communications and video distribution. SES-5 will also carry the first hosted L-band payload for the European Commission's European Geostationary Navigation Overlay Service (EGNOS). Source
The launch of an ILS Proton launch vehicle with the SES-5 satellite was postponed today for technical reasons with the launch vehicle. The satellite is being launched for SES of Luxembourg and was built by Space Systems/Loral. The launch date will be determined at a later time. Read more