Russia launches 2 telecoms satellites

Russia launched late on Monday a Proton-M rocket carrying two telecommunications satellites from the Baikonur space center in Kazakhstan, the Russian Federal Space Agency Roscosmos said. The Proton rocket with Briz-M booster lifted off late on Monday. This is the sixth Proton launch this year and the 378th since first launch in 1965, according to the Russian (RIA Novosti) News Agency. Telkom-3 satellite has been built by Russia's Reshetnev space company with its communication equipment made by Thales Alenia Space. It has a capacity of 42 C- and Ku-band active transponders to provide telecoms services for Indonesian customers. This is the first time Indonesia has bought a satellite from Russia. The Express MD2 is a small communication satellite, designed and manufactured by the Khrunichev State Research and Production Space Center for the Russian Satellite Communications Company(RSCC). The satellite features 8 C-band transponders and 1 L-band transponder to relay, round-the-clock, data streams to multiple users within the Russian Satellite Communications and Broadcasting System.