MOSCOW, April 28 (RIA Novosti) - A Ukrainian-Russian carrier rocket has successfully put an Israeli communications satellite into orbit, Russia's Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos) said on Monday.
The Zenit-3SLB rocket was launched earlier on Monday from the Baikonur space center in Kazakhstan for the first time under the Land Launch program and after a number of delays.
"The separation of the foreign spacecraft from a Russian DM booster occurred successfully and on schedule," a Roscosmos spokesman said. "Control over Amos-3 was passed to the Israeli customer."
All previous launches of this type of Zenit rocket were conducted through the Sea Launch program from the Pacific Ocean.
The $170-mln Israeli satellite is to join the AMOS-2 satellite, replacing AMOS-1. It will increase capacity, expand coverage, and enhance direct cross-Atlantic links connecting the Mideast to Europe and the U.S. East Coast, according to the fleet's operator, Space Communications Ltd.
The Sea Launch and the Land Launch projects are both operated by the Sea Launch consortium, established in 1995. The company is owned by Boeing, Norway's Kvaerner ASA, Ukraine's Yuzhnoye design bureau and the Yuzhmash production association, as well as Russia's RSC-Energia.
Sea Launch has performed a total of 26 commercial launches for a range of companies, including EchoStar, DirecTV, XM Satellite Radio, and PanAmSat.
right
At 05:00 GMT this morning, the maiden flight of the Ukrainian-built Zenit-3SLB rocket lifted off from Site 45/1 at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Atop it was the AMOS-3 communications satellite for Israeli company Spacecom. The satellite separated from the carrier rocket directly into a geosynchronous orbit, several hours after launch.

The Zenit-3SLB is a modernised version of the Zenit-3SL, used by Sea Launch. New features include an upgraded guidance and control system, first flown on the Zenit-2M in June 2007. Today's flight was also the first conducted by Land Launch, a subsidiary of the international Sea Launch consortium, and the first launch of a three-stage Zenit rocket from Baikonur. The first Land Launch mission was originally scheduled for 2007, but was delayed after another Zenit exploded on its launch pad in late January 2007. A further delay from Thursday morning occurred when the errector/transporter component of the launch pad failed to back away from the rocket.

This was the 22th orbital launch of 2008. The next Zenit launch is scheduled for late May, when a Sea Launch Zenit-3SL will place the Galaxy 18 satellite into orbit. Launched a little over an hour after an Indian PSLV placed ten satellites into orbit, it also marked the first occurrence for 2008 of two orbital launches on the same day as each other, in GMT.