The Air and Space Defense Forces successfully launched a Proton-M rocket from the launch complex No. 81 of the Baykonur launch site. The launch took place at 03:46 on November 12, 2013 MSK (23:46 November 11, 2013 UTC). The rocket and the Briz-M upper stage are expected to deliver the satellite to a geosynchronous orbit. The spacecraft is reported to be a Raduga-1M military communication satellite.
This is the third Raduga-1M satellite. The first one, launched in December 2007, reportedly completed operations in June 2013. The second satellite was was launched in January 2010.
Another good video from Roskosmos - Proton-M is moved to the launch pad:
The book
Comments
Why do they use a Proton-M rocket to launch a 2.5 T satellite when it can launch a 6 T satellite in GTO orbit ?
Do they launch Raduga-1M into GSO orvit via Proton-M instead of GTO orbit and compensate for the lower weight ?