Russia’s Proton-M rocket with telecoms satellite for Angola blasts off from Baikonur

BAIKONUR COSMODROME. KAZINFORM A Proton-M carrier rocket with an AngoSat-2 telecoms satellite for Angola blasted off from site No. 81 at the Baikonur spaceport, a TASS correspondent reported from the scene, TASS reports.

The rocket’s head unit comprising a DM-03 booster and the satellite was set to separate from the rocket’s upper stage in 584 seconds after the launch. It will take the booster several hours to deliver the satellite into the designated orbit.

Russia and Angola agreed on creating an AngoSat-2 telecoms satellite instead of the defunct Angosat-1 space vehicle launched from the Baikonur spaceport on December 26, 2017. Contact with the satellite was lost the next day after its launch.

The AngoSat-2 satellite is based on the Express-1000N platform developed by Russia’s Reshetnev Information Satellite Systems Company. The payload module that maintains communications in the C, Ku and Ka frequency bands was delivered by Europe’s Airbus Group. The satellite will operate at 23 degrees east longitude. The telecoms satellite is designed to operate for 15 years.

Angolan Minister of Telecommunications, Information Technology and Social Communication Mario Augusto da Silva Oliveira told reporters on October 11 that the satellite’s operation would begin 90 days after the launch when all technical and technological procedures were over.

Photo: Sergei Savostyanov/TASS