A Russian Proton-M heavy carrier rocket with a U.S. Sirius XM-5 satellite blasted off from the Baikonur space center in Kazakhstan on Thursday, a spokesman for Russia's space agency, Roskosmos, said.
The launch took place at 10:53 pm Moscow time [18:53 GMT], the spokesman said.
"The Russian part of the program will end at 08:05 a.m. Moscow time [04:05 GMT] when the spacecraft separates from the Briz-M upper stage rocket," the spokesman said.
A contract to launch the Sirius XM-5 was concluded between the Russian-U.S. joint venture International Launch Services (ILS) and the Sirius XM Radio, Inc.
Sirius XM-5, a powerful geostationary satellite built by Space Systems/Loral, will function as an in-orbit spare for the Sirius XM satellite radio network. All four previous Sirius satellites were launched on Proton rockets.
MOSCOW, October 14 (RIA Novosti)
