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American satellite placed into orbit

It is the second successful Proton-M launch after last July's failure

Photo ЕРА/C. CAREAU

Photo ЕРА/C. CAREAU

MOSCOW, October 26 (Itar-Tass) - The American satellite Sirius FM-6 is successfully placed into its geostationary orbit, the Russian Federal Space Agency Roscosmos reported to Itar-Tass on Saturday.

At 07:20 Moscow time, the satellite separated from the upper stage Briz-M and came into the geostationary orbit at a longitude of 115.2 degrees west, a Roscosmos source said.

The Proton-M rocket with the satellite was launched at 22:09 Moscow time on October 25 from the Baikonur space centre. Nine minutes after the blastoff, at 22:18 Moscow time, the Briz separated from the third stage of the Proton and continued carrying the satellite to the orbit.

It is the second successful Proton-M launch after last July's failure. Besides, it is the first liftoff after Oleg Ostapenko was appointed as new Roscosmos head.

The Sirius FM-6 launch was originally planned for October 20, but due to technical problems at an American ground control station, the liftoff was postponed to October 21 and then to 25.

Sirius FM-6 was made by the Space Systems/Loral company for the satellite operator Sirius XM Radio. The satellite is designed to broadcast music, sport and news radio programmes to the U.S. continental part. Its weight with fuel is 6,038 kilogrammes. The Sirius is expected to work for 15 years. It is the largest and most powerful satellite of the Sirius XM Radio company.

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