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Russia’s Proton rocket places UK Inmarsat satellite into orbit

Inmarsat-5F2 is the second of three fifth-generation Inmarsat satellites

MOSCOW, February 2. /TASS/. The Breeze-M upper stage has placed the Inmarsat-5F2 communications satellite (UK) into a super-synchronous transfer orbit at an altitude of 65,000 km, the press service of the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos) told TASS on Monday.

"The spacecraft separated from the upper stage and will soon be transferred to the customer’s control," the agency said.

After separation from the satellite, the Breeze-M upper stage will make two maneuvers to get into a disposal orbit.

Russia’s Proton-M carrier rocket was launched from Baikonur cosmodrome (Kazakhstan) at 15:31 pm, Moscow time, on February 1. At 15:40 pm, the upper stage in conjunction with the spacecraft separated from the third stage of the launch vehicle. The further satellite’s orbit placement was carried out by five ignitions of the service propulsion system of Breeze-M. The total time of the satellite’s placement into the target orbit was 15 hours and 31 minutes.

The contract on the launch of the Inmarsat-5F2 satellite by the Proton-M rocket was concluded by the Russian-American joint venture International Launch Services (ILS). Russia’s Federal State Unitary Enterprise - Khrunichev State Research and Production Space Centre - developer and manufacturer of the Proton carrier rocket and the upper stage Breeze-M, as well as the Angara advanced rocket system, holds the ILS controlling stake.

Inmarsat-5F2, manufactured by Boeing Satellite Systems (USA) on the order of the Inmarsat (UK) satellite communications operator, will provide telecommunications services in North and South America and the Atlantic. Inmarsat-5F2 is the second of three fifth-generation Inmarsat satellites. The first satellite of this series was successfully launched by a Proton-M rocket in December 2013.

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