Russian carrier rocket to take US satellite into orbit Sun midnight.

MOSCOW, November 29 (Itar-Tass) - A Russian carrier rocket Zenit-3SLB
that is due to lift off at 24:00 hours Moscow Standard Time Sunday from
the Baikonur space center in Kazakhstan will take into orbit a satellite
of the U.S. corporation Intelsat.
"The liftoff of the Zenit-3SLB carrier rocket has been scheduled for
Sunday midnight sharp," a source at Russia's Federal Space Agency
/Roskosmos/ said.
The burned-out first stage of the rocket is due to fall on the surface
of the Earth in Kazakhstan's Karaganda region, the nose fairing, in the
Republic of Altai or in Khakassia, both in southern Siberia, and the
second stage, in the Pacific Ocean.
"Total duration of the journey to the designated orbit will total 6
hrs 28 min," the source said.
The satellite will take the position of 85 degrees East in the
geostationary orbit.
Intelsat-15, designed by Orbital Sciences Corporation, is a new
telecommunications satellite in the Intelsat orbital grouping. It has 22
powerful Ku-band transponders and is due to transmit television signal to
and support telecommunications with Russia, the Middle East, and the Far
East.
An agreement that Intelsat has with Russia suggests that six
transponders will be used to cover the Russian territory.
Intelsat has fitted out the satellite with two separate beams that
will be used by subscribers to mobile telephony services in the Indian
Ocean area and will provide broadband communications between Japan and
Asia.
The satellite will stay in service for fifteen years.
This launch is the fourth one under the Land Launch program. The first
one was carried out in April 2008.
The Zenit-3SLB carrier rocket was built by the Southern
Machine-Building Plant in Dnepropetrovsk, Ukraine, and the DM-SLB booster
block, by the Russian aerospace corporation Energiya.
It has two stages, burns a non-toxic fuel composed of liquefied oxygen
and kerosene and looks like a twin of the rockets used in the Sea Launch
program.
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