Posted: Tue, Dec 1, 2009, 7:38 AM ET (1238 GMT)
After a one-day delay, a Zenit-3SLB successfully placed an Intelsat communications satellite into orbit early Tuesday. The Zenit-3SLB lifted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 4:00 pm EST Monday (2100 GMT Monday, 3:00 am local time Tuesday) and placed the Intelsat 15 into a geosynchronous transfer orbit six and a half hours later. The launch had been scheduled for a day earlier but was delayed by an unspecified technical issue. Intelsat 15 in a STAR-2.4 model spacecraft built by Orbital Sciences, weighing 2,550 kilograms at launch and carrying 22 Ku-band transponders. Intelsat will operate the spacecraft at 85 degrees east in GEO, replacing the existing Intelsat 709 spacecraft to provide communications services across the Middle East, Indian Ocean region, and Russia.

Related Links:

•  Spaceflight Now article
•  RIA Novosti article
•  AP article
•  Sea Launch press release
•  Intelsat press release