On Wednesday night (on October 6) the rocket Zenith-2SE carrying the American communication satellite took off from Baikonur within the framework of the program Land Launch. The rocket took the spacecraft Intelsat-18 to the calculated orbit and its control was transferred to the customer. The rocket Zenith-2SE is one of the modifications of “Zenith” family and is used in Land Launch program that complements the other international space program of Sea Launch.
Land Launch enables to launch space crafts that are not very heavy with fewer expenses for the transportation to the launching place. The rocket is made only from the Ukrainian component parts. Two rocket stages have been produced by the Dnipropetrovsk Pivdenmash factory and the upper-stage rocket and the fairing have been made by the Russian Rocket and Space Corporation Energia and Lavochkin Research and Production Association. The program is run by the company International Space Services with the participation of Ukraine, Russia and the US. According to the Pivdenny design bureau press office (Dnipropetrovsk), the comsat that has been taken to the orbit will replace one of ten satellites owned by the American company Intelsat. Its launching mass is 3.2 tons and the lifetime in the space is 15 years. The spacecraft will broadcast on the territory of North America, Australia, New Zealand, Eastern Asia and the Pacific Region. As The Day has previously reported, after a long break because of Sea Launch restructuring the launches of “Zenith” rocket-carriers within the international space program Sea Launch were resumed.
