WASHINGTON, January 15 /TASS/. The Russian Proton-M carrier rocket with the Eutelsat 9B onboard is to be launched from the Baikonur space launch facility in Kazakhstan on January 28, International Launch Services (ILS) announced in Washington on Friday.
ILS is a US-based subsidiary of the Russian Khrunichev Center.
The launch initially planned for January 25 was later postponed to January 28.
Johann-Dietrich Woerner, Director-General of the European Space Agency (ESA), said in Paris earlier on Friday that the carrier-rocket could be launched on January 27.
The explanation is simple. The discrepancy is the result of time difference in various time zones. The Proton-M is to be launched at around 04:20 local Kazakh time on January 28; it will already be a new day in Moscow. However, it’s going to be about 23:40 on January 27 by Paris time.
The Airbus Defense and Space Company built Eutelsat 9B on order from Eutelsat S.A., a French satellite communications operator. The satellite weighs 5,175 kilogrammes. Its active life span is 15 years.
It will be the first Proton launch in 2016 and the 92nd launch under the ILS program; the 11th launch with the Eutelsat satellite onboard and the 21st launch with an Airbus-produced satellite.