MOSCOW. June 2 (Interfax-AVN) - A Zenit-3SLB launch vehicle carrying the U.S. Intelsat 18 telecommunications satellite is expected to take off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome, which Russia leases from Kazakhstan, at the end of September, a space rocket industry source told Interfax-AVN on Thursday.
"The satellite will be delivered to the cosmodrome on August 19. Its launch has been set for September 29," the source said.
Due to a shortage of Zenit launch vehicles, a decision was made to use such a rocket that was initially intended to lift the Intelsat 19 satellite into space from a mobile platform in the Pacific Ocean in the launch of the Intelsat 18.