spacetoday.net: Soyuz launches Globalstar satellites

Posted: Thu, Feb 7, 2013, 6:43 AM ET (1143 GMT)
Soyuz launch of 4th group of Globalstar next-gen satellites (Arianespace)

A Soyuz rocket successfully launched a final group of six next-generation satellites for communications satellite company Globalstar on Wednesday. The Soyuz-Fregat rocket lifted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 11:04 am EST (1604 GMT) and released the six Globalstar satellites into orbit about one hour and 40 minutes later. the launch was originally scheduled for Tuesday but postponed a day because of gusty upper-level winds. the satellites, weighing 650 kilograms each and built by Thales Alenia Space, join 18 others launched on three previous Soyuz launches in 2010 and 2011. Combined, they reconstitute the Globalstar system, allowing the company to resume satellite phone services that were disrupted as the original Globalstar satellites, launched from 1998 to 2000, suffered equipment malfunctions.