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Space

Sirius XM-5 satellite delivered to Baikonur for October launch

RIA Novosti

17:56 12/09/2010

MOSCOW, September 12 (RIA Novosti) - A giant An-124 Ruslan cargo plane has landed at the Baikonur Space Center in Kazakhstan with a telecommunications satellite that will be launched for Sirius XM radio in mid-October, the Russian Space Agency said on Sunday.

The Sirius XM-5 satellite and an array of support equipment were unloaded and taken to a clean room for final assembly and testing, Roscosmos said on its website.

The launch is expected to take place on October 14. The satellite will function as an in-orbit spare for the Sirius XM satellite radio network. All four previous Sirius satellites were launched on Proton rockets.

The October launch will be the sixth time a Proton-M heavy carrier rocket has lifted off with a foreign satellite in 2010. Three other Proton-M rockets have orbited Russian satellites.

The final assembly of the rocket started at Baikonur last month.



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