Briz-M carrying two satellites begins autonomous flight
MOSCOW. April 28 (Interfax-AVN) - The orbital bloc composed of a Briz-M booster, a Russian satellite Luch-5V, and a Kazakh communication satellite KazSat-3 has successfully separated from the launch vehicle Proton-M, which was launched from the Baikonur cosmodrome on Monday, Alexander Bobrenev, an official with the Khrunichev Space Center, told Interfax-AVN.
"At 8:34 a.m. Moscow time, the orbital bloc separated from the third stage of the launch vehicle and began its autonomous flight," he said.
"The space vehicle Luch-5V will separate from the booster at 5:17 p.m. and the space vehicle KazSat-3 will be taken to the target orbit at 5:57," Roscosmos said.
The Luch-5V was developed and made at the Krasnoyarsk enterprise Reshetnev Information Satellite Systems. It is the third spacecraft of the multi-purpose Luch space system intended for providing communication services to the Russian segment of the International Space Station (ISS), low-orbit spacecraft, launch vehicles, and boosters. The mass of the satellite is 1,200 kilos and it service life is ten years.
The KazSat-3 was developed and made in the Reshetnev Information Satellite Systems on the orders of the Kazakh Republican Space Communications Center. The satellite is intended for the provision of communication and broadcasting services and high-speed Internet access on the territory of Kazakhstan and the neighboring countries. The mass of the spacecraft is 1,800 kilos and its service life is 15 years. The satellite is equipped with 28 Ku-range transponders.