Russia's Proton-M carrier rocket, launched on Saturday from the Baikonur space center in Kazakhstan, took a U.S. telecommunications satellite to orbit after a nine-hour flight, a spokesman for Russia's federal space agency said on Sunday.

The rocket blasted off from the Baikonur space centre in Kazakhstan at 11:19 GMT, and the satellite separated at 20:19 GMT.

"The Proton-M carrier rocket with a Briz-M upper stage, which blasted off from the Baikonur Space Center on Saturday orbited the AMC-4P satellite," the source said.

A control station in Perth, Australia, has already received initial signals from the satellite, also known under the name SES-1.

The 2.6-tonne SES-1 is a hybrid C- and Ku-band spacecraft with a life span of 17+ years. It will provide coverage of the U.S. and the Caribbean and is intended to replace SES's existing AMC-2 and AMC-4 satellites.

SES-2 and SES-3 will be launched in the near future.

This was the fifth Proton-M launch Russia has carried out since the start of the year.

MOSCOW, April 25 (RIA Novosti)