Article Posted on : - Jul 01, 2009

A file photo of Russian Proton-M carrier rocket

MOSCOW (BNS): Russia’s Proton-M carrier rocket successfully put into orbit Wednesday a U S telecommunications satellite, the Russian Federal Space Agency said.

The satellite was launched from the Baikonur space center in Kazakhstan. “The foreign satellite has successfully separated from the Breeze-M booster, and control over the satellite has been transferred to the client,” Ria Novosti quoting the agency said.

Earlier in March, Russian-American joint venture International Launch Services (ILS) had signed a contract to launch two Sirius satellites to expand the existing SIRIUS Satellite Radio constellation.

Owner of the ILS, Russia’s Khrunichev Center, RSC Energia, and U S firm Space Transport Inc. provides spacecraft launch services on board Proton-M carrier rockets. In 2000 ILS launched SIRIUS' initial constellation of three Radiosat satellites.

The launch of the Sirius FM5 satellite was the fifth involving a Proton-M carrier rocket in 2009 and the 346th throughout the history of Proton launches. Sirius Satellite Radio is a satellite radio (SDARS) service operating in the United States and Canada, owned by Sirius XM Radio.

Headquartered in New York City, Sirius was officially launched on July 1, 2002 and currently provides 69 music channels and 65 sports, news and entertainment channels for listeners, the news agency added.