The rocket, operated by the Sea Launch consortium, lifted off during the afternoon from a unique floating platform in the Pacific Ocean.
"A Russian-Ukrainian carrier rocket has put a foreign spacecraft in transitional orbit," a Russian Mission Control spokesman said.
This is the first launch of the Zenit carrier rocket following a January 30, 2007 booster rocket explosion that slightly damaged the Odyssey Launch Platform. The commission investigating the incident concluded that the failure had originated in the liquid oxygen turbo-pump section of the RD-171M main engine, manufactured by Russian machine-building company Energomash.
The Sea Launch consortium, established in 1995, is owned by Boeing, Norway's Kvaerner ASA, Ukraine's Yuzhnoye design bureau and the Yuzhmash production association, as well Russia's RSC-Energia, and is the only company which launches its vehicles from the equator, allowing rockets to carry heavier payloads than from other latitudes.
Thuraya Telecommunications Co., based in the United Arab Emirates, began commercial operations in mid-2001, following Sea Launch's successful deployment of Thuraya-1 on October 20, 2000. Sea Launch successfully orbited Thuraya-2 on June 10, 2003.
The 5,180 kg (11,420 lb) Thuraya-3 spacecraft built by Boeing, is designed to expand Thuraya's system capacity and coverage area to East Asia.
