spacetoday.net: Sea Launch places Italian satellite in orbit

Posted: Mon, Apr 20, 2009, 1:42 PM ET (1742 GMT)
Zenit-3SL launch of Sicral 1B (Sea Launch)

A Sea Launch rocket successfully launched an Italian military communications satellite early Monday. The Zenit-3SL lifted off from the Odyssey Launch Platform, on the Equator in the Pacific Ocean, at 4:16 am EDT (0816 GMT) and inserted the Sicral 1B satellite into a geosynchronous transfer orbit less than two hours later. The spacecraft, built by Thales Alenia Space for the Italian Ministry of Defense, weighed just over 3,000 kilograms at launch and carries a suite of EHF/Ka-band, UHF-band, and SHF-band transponders for use by the Italian military and NATO. The spacecraft will be located in GEO at 11.8 degrees east. The launch was the 30th for Sea Launch dating back a decade, but the first of perhaps only two scheduled for this year by the multinational venture.