* Astronomy

The Proton-K rocket began its journey to orbit at 1941 GMT from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in central Kazakhstan.

The vehicle's three core stages each completed their roles in the launch as planned, followed by the ignition of the Block-DM upper stage to begin a series of burns to place the Express AM-3 satellite into its intended high orbit.

Deployment of the 5,720-pound spacecraft from the Block-DM was around 0215 GMT. The satellite is operating as expected and contact with Express AM-3 has been established.



The craft will be parked in geostationary orbit about 22,300 miles high above the Pacific Ocean along the equator and 140 degrees East longitude.
Over the coming weeks, controllers will put the spacecraft systems and payload through a testing period before it goes into service for its planned lifetime of around 12 years.

From that vantage point over the Pacific, Express AM-3's suite of antennas and communications equipment will reach users across much of eastern Russia and Siberia, along with those along the Pacific coast. Along with 16 C-band and 12 Ku-band transponders, the craft also carries a single L-band transponder.
Express AM-3 is the fifth member of the upgraded version of communications satellites designed to provide services to both state users and commercial customers across much of Asia.
The spacecraft bus was built by Russian contractor NPO PM of Siberia, while Alcatel Space of France was responsible for providing the 1,276-pound communications payload.

The Express AM fleet of civil satellites - operated by the Russian Satellite Communications Company - contains the nation's most powerful civilian-operated communications birds.
They are operated on behalf of both state users and commercial customers to replace older models such as the aging Gorizont and Ekran-M series.

The Russian federal government uses the constellation for mobile presidential communications and official broadcasting, while private firms will use the craft's capabilities for digital broadcasting, telephony, videoconferencing, data networks, and broadband Internet access.

Friday's lift-off marked the 23rd space launch to reach orbit in 2005.
It was also the fourth Proton launch of 2005, and the 315th flight of the venerable booster since it was first introduced 40 years ago.
The next mission for Proton is scheduled for August 9, when the rocket will launch the Canadian Anik F1R communications satellite under the commercial auspices of International Launch Services.

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