Proton-M Launches QuetzSat-1

A Russian Proton rocket lifts off from Baikonur on Dec. 28, 2009 (Credit: Roscosmos).

International Launch Services (ILS) has launched their Proton-M rocket on September 29, 2011, carying SES QuetzSat-1 telecommunications satellite. The launch, performed from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, was on schedule at 18:32 GMT; the satellite deploy happened nine hours into the flight.

This is the second successful launch of a Proton since Russia resumed Proton flights following the failure of August 17, 2011, when a failure on the Briz-M upper stage sent the Ekspress-AM4 telecommunication satellite into a useless orbit. The previous one, performed successfully on September 21, 2011, carried a military payload.