Posted: Sat, Nov 3, 2012, 12:12 PM ET (1612 GMT)
A Proton rocket placed two Russian communications satellites into orbit on Saturday. The Proton M rocket lifted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 5:04 pm EDT Friday (2104 GMT Friday, 3:04 am local time Saturday). The rocket's Breeze M upper stage released the Luch-5B and Yamal-300K satellites into geosynchronous transfer orbits a little more than nine hours after liftoff. Luch-5B is a communications satellite that will be used by the Russian government as a data relay for other spacecraft, while Yamal-300K is a communications satellite owned by Gazprom Space Systems, providing C- and Ku-band coverage across Russia.
