MOSCOW. Aug 2 (Interfax-AVN) - A Proton-M launch vehicle carrying the Amazonas communications satellite is set to take off from Baikonur space center at 2:32 Moscow time on Thursday, a Khrunichev space corporation spokesman told Interfax on Monday.
"The Amazonas satellite was built by EADS Astrium under orders from Hispasat company on the Eurostar 3000 platform, and is one of the most powerful, modern satellites designed for securing digital television and radio broadcasting, telephone communications, broad-band access to the Internet, the formation of corporate networks, and so on. It weighs 4,540 kilos," the spokesman said.
The satellite will give coverage to South and Central America, trans-Atlantic routes, and also part of Western Europe, including Spain, Portugal and France.
This will be the third commercial launch of the Proton-M using a Briz-M booster.
In March, the combination was used to launch the W3A satellite, and in June, Intelsat-10 was taken into orbit.
Three more commercial launches of the Proton are planned for the remainder of the year, the spokesman said.