Posted on 12/29/2005 8:13:47 PM PST by FairOpinion
MOSCOW - A Russian booster rocket carrying a U.S. telecommunications satellite blasted into space Thursday after a series of delays, the Federal Space Agency said.
The Proton-M rocket carrying the AMC-23, or WorldSat-3, satellite lifted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at about 5 a.m.
The satellite, owned by Princeton, New Jersey-based Ses Americon Inc., will serve customers across the Pacific region, including western North America, East Asia, the South Pacific, Alaska and Hawaii, and provide links to the world's premier regional satellite systems.
The launch was postponed several times because of flaws in the booster rocket. The booster was built by the Khrunichev company, Russia's premier rocket manufacturer but has suffered a series of embarrassing launch failures that led to the ouster of its chief executive by Russian President Vladimir Putin last month.
The loss of a high-profile European satellite was among a series of mishaps in October blamed on Khrunichev that jeopardized Russia's hopes of earning foreign cash from launching foreign commercial satellites.
The loss of the estimated $142 million CryoSat satellite because of the failure of a Russian Rokot booster was a major blow to the European Space Agency, which hoped to conduct a three-year mapping of polar ice caps and provide more reliable data on global warming.
A bit more info:
"In what amounts to an international effort, the 5-kilogram satellite was made by French company Alcatel Alenia Space and is owned by U.S. satellite communications provider SES AMERICOM, whereas the Proton-M carrier rocket and Briz-M boosters were manufactured by Russia’s Khrunichev Space Center.
Launch services were provided under a contract with International Launch Services, a joint venture between U.S. aerospace giant Lockheed Martin and the Khrunichev center."
http://beta.russiajournal.com/?p=8999
First they unravel the design and install their own listening devices and then the launch.
That's what occurred to me too.
Sounds like bad medicine to me
For some time now, yes.
Probably just a cover for the Dept. of Defense global "communications".
I would certainly hope the Defense Dept knows better, than having Russia launch our satellites for us...
I think we should be friends with Russia, but trusting them this far would be a bit much.
I hope they know better too. Guess I just don't trust the US (and the world's) trend towards globalism.
Not any more. Free market trumps everything.
Good gosh.
Look at it this way....next time your DirectTV dish goes out, you can blame it on Russia and go hide in a fetal position. LOL
ping
It's good to see Russia and the US cooperating on projects like this.
Superb. Iran, Syria now USA who's next to be fluffed for a buck?
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